Household Income and Expenditure Survey Featured
Nuku'alofa, 22 January 2016. Tonga Statistics Department is currently running its Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) for 2015-2016 and will conclude with the publication of the 3rd HIES report for the Kingdom of Tonga in 2017.
Background
This report will be the third of its type to be published by the department, despite its long history since the 1970s under the Ministry of Finance. The first and second reports were published in December 2002 and August 2010 for the surveys of 2001 and 2009 consecutively. The department conducts the survey every 5-10 years depending on the funding available.
Purpose
The Household Income and Expenditure Survey is an economic survey that describes the economic situation of the households within a country (financial situation regarding the income and expenditure). It is the only economic survey conducted on a national level, which deals with households’ habits in terms of expenditure and income.
Its purpose is to obtain information on the income, consumption pattern, incidence of poverty and tendency towards saving for different groups of people in Tonga. This information is vital and will be used to guide policy makers in framing socio-economic developmental policies and initiating financial measures for improving economic conditions for the people.
Within the department, the results of the survey are also used to update the base period and weighting system for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and to provide valuable statistical information on the household sector for Tonga’s National Accounts estimates.
Current Status
The HIES field operation of the survey consists of collecting information from a sample of households based on face to face interviews. These interviews contain questions related to living standard conditions, expenses, purchases, income and so forth. Consisting of 16 survey rounds with 3 weeks per round, the survey ended round four on December 26th 2015.
2016 commenced with the HIES conducting a workshop on January 11th – 16th for the supervisors. Its purpose was to assess, review and comment on the survey work and data that has been carried out and collected so far. Round 5 is now underway (commenced January 18th) with supervisors and enumerators resuming their work out on the field. This round will end on February 6th.
ENDS
Issued by the National Bureau of Statistics
-----------------------------------------
For more information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
