In the third quarter of this year, household monthly average income rose 3.5% from the third quarter of the previous year due to the impact of consumption coupons. During the same period, monthly average household consumption increased 1.3%, but real consumption reflecting prices fell instead.
According to the Third-quarter household trend survey results released by the National Data Agency on the 27th, third-quarter household monthly average income was 5,439,000 won. Compared with the third quarter of last year, that was up 3.5%.
In particular, the lower the income of the household, the larger the increase in income. The bottom 20% (first quintile) rose 11% year over year, the second quintile 7.1%, the third quintile 5.8%, and the fourth quintile 4.4%. In contrast, the top 20% (fifth quintile) increased only 0.4%.
An official at the National Data Agency said, "As consumption coupons were counted as income, the income growth effect was larger for low-income groups."
Third-quarter household expenditure was a monthly average of 4,002,000 won, up 0.7% from a year earlier. Of this, consumption expenditure for living increased among households in the first through fourth quintiles, but only the top 20% reduced consumption. The institutional sector with the largest reduction in consumption was leisure and culture, down 21.9% year over year.
An official at the National Data Agency said, "The area where households in the top 20% reduced consumption the most was overseas travel expenses," and noted, "With Chuseok pushed into the fourth quarter, it appears overseas travel was postponed to the fourth quarter."
Consumption expenditure reflecting prices worsened instead. Real consumption expenditure in the third quarter fell 0.7%. It has declined for three consecutive quarters. This means that after subtracting the portion of consumption increased by inflation, consumption retreated in real terms.
By item, with the Chuseok holiday coming later, expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages fell 1.2% from the same period last year. In particular, meat (-9.0%), vegetables and processed vegetables (-7.0%), and juice and other beverages (-6.2%) saw large declines.
Leisure and culture expenditure fell 6.1% from a year earlier. As the holiday was pushed back, group and overseas travel expenses decreased sharply by 14.1%, and spending on sports and recreation services (-3.6%) and books (-10.2%) also fell.
The National Data Agency said, "It is assessed that due to the late Chuseok effect, expenditures on food and travel-related items decreased."