The comparability of income and expenditure surveys 1995, 2000 and 2005/2006

Abstract

The Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) between September 2005 and August 2006 was the third of its kind, after similar surveys in October 1995 and October 2000. The main purpose of the IES is to collect and provide information on income and expenditure patterns of a representative sample of households, so as to update the basket of goods and services required for the compilation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Nonetheless, these surveys have also become an important source of information for poverty and inequality analysis, mainly because of the absence of other detailed datasets containing income and expenditure data. There are, however, important reasons why these datasets cannot be unquestioningly compared. This paper attempts to show why.