Household consumption increased by 1.4% for the first quarter (Q1) of the year, Statistics South Africa reports, with the hospitality sector in particular seeing a sharp rise in activity as consumer spending in restaurants and hotels increased by 6.5%.
Transport as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages also stood out as key drivers of household consumption, Stats SA revealed, with the sectors respectively making up 2.8% and 2.5% of household consumption.
Together, the three sectors of hospitality, transport, as well as food and beverage tell an encouraging story of people increasingly venturing out after extended periods of lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Of interest is recreation and culture, making up only 0.7% of household consumption for Q1, indicating that the return of audiences to entertainment venues such as theatres is lagging behind society re-emerging from pandemic restrictions, mainly because of social distancing and uncertainty about the current status of the coronavirus.
The 0.4% of household income spent on education, also serves as an indicator that less is being spent on costly schooling, supporting the notion that households are increasingly relying on government schooling as opposed to more expensive, private education.
Additional figures showing household spending as determined by Stats SA for Q1 are as follows: communication, 2.4%; clothing and footwear, 1.6%; furnishings, household equipment and maintenance, 1.5%; alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics, 1.4%; health, 0.9%; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 0.1%.
Spending on miscellaneous goods and services dropped by -0.6%.
