Maputo — The average monthly per capita expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages was 734 Meticais (11.49 dollars at the current exchange rate), according to the latest Household Budget Survey (IOF 2022), unveiled on Wednesday by Mozambique's National Statistics Institute (INE).
The amount, the survey explains, corresponds to 3,358 Meticais per household and the percentage of expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages is more significant in rural areas, at 49.3 per cent, compared to urban areas, where it accounts for 27.8 per cent of total expenditure.
"Expenditure on transport is more relevant in urban areas (15.5 per cent) than in rural areas (7.3 per cent). The same is true in the division of restaurants, hotels, bars and similar with a relative importance of 9.4 per cent in urban areas and 4.7 per cent in rural areas', says the survey.
Overall, the survey says, households living in Mozambique spent an average of 8,661.00 Meticais per month, equivalent to 1,893.00 Meticais per person. The average monthly expenditure of households in the country is almost double the national minimum wage in force in 2022, which was 4,591.68 meticais.
According to the survey, average monthly expenditure in the urban areas was above the national average, with 12,548.00 Meticais per household (2,686.00 Meticais per capita), while in the rural area it stood at 6,680.00 Meticais (1,475.00 Meticais per capita).
According to the IOF 2022, of the total expenditure of Mozambican households, 40.1 per cent was spent by the richest 10 per cent of the population, while the poorest 10 per cent only spent 0.9 per cent of total expenditure.
"Analysing the structure of expenditure, according to the position of the head of the household in the labour process, it is noted that households whose heads work in international bodies/embassies and in public companies have the highest levels of monthly per capita expenditure with 6,900.00 meticais and 6,727.00 meticais, respectively', the report stresses.
The IOF 2022 also puts the total number of households in Mozambique at 6,909,016, of whom 66.2 per cent live in the rural areas. The northern province of Nampula and the central province of Zambézia have the highest number of households (20.6 per cent and 18.3 per cent of the total, respectively), while the southern province of Gaza (4.6 per cent) and Maputo City (3.9 per cent) have the lowest percentage.
The document shows that a large proportion of heads of household are farmers (64.6 per cent), followed by non-agricultural workers (9.2 per cent).
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"The majority of heads of household are self-employed without employees (78.9 per cent), followed by workers in private companies (9.9 per cent) and in the public administration (5.4 per cent). On average, Mozambican households consist of 4.6 members, with the largest share having between three and four members, representing 33.0 per cent. This is followed by households with five or six members (29.6 per cent)', reads the document.
Out of every 100 households, the report says, 71 are headed by men and only 29 are headed by women. It also notes that 50 per cent of households are headed by people under the age of 41.
In terms of methodology, the INE visited each household in its sample for seven continuous days. Data collection for the IOF was done over a 12-month period to capture the variability of expenditure, income and other socio-economic characteristics during the year.
