According to Keynes, “The consumption of a person or a society depends on his current level of income that is absolute income called absolute income hypothesis.”The Covid -19 pandemic has given a new pathway to the Kerala’s consumption model. There is a change in the consumption pattern, from non-food items to food items.
Also, there has been is a shift in consumption pattern within food items due to different factors. Why is there a change in the overall consumption pattern during the pandemic? Why there is a change in the consumption pattern within food category? In this article I would like to explore and analyse the immediate implications of COVID-19 on Kerala’s consumption expenditure pattern.
Non-food consumption expenditure
The present crisis due to the pandemic was unexpected. The Global lockdown is a newand different experience, surprising many. However, the consumers are not convinced that the lockdown would be the only way to save lives. At the same time, the strategy of lockdown is to contain the spread of the virus, established various implications to the consumer consumption pattern put the economy unpredictable. Consumption will determine the demand and supply of the economy. Without demand there will be neither production nor growth. Moreover, the continuous lockdown affects the movement of goods and consumption.
Due to the lockdown, only essential goods were available in the market like groceries, medicines, milk, vegetables, etc. So the total non-food consumption expenditures were minimal. However, the consumption percentage of essential medical products have been increased during the lockdown.
Shops were closed during the strict period of lockdown. This unusual situation pushed the consumers not consume the durables goods. For example clothes, footwear were not consumed. As the transportation was completely stalled due to the lockdown people’s movements were completely restricted.
Likewise, the educational department was complete in chaos. The education department is linked with transportation, health, food, stationery and many more. When the transportation department was at a standstill, the consumption pattern had serious short term impacts and will have further impacts in the long run also. The reason is when the consumers fail to turn toward these sectors will have no demand for related products. Hence, there was no production. It is better to remember here about the words of Adam Smith, “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.”
Several reports indicate that during the first month of lockdown the total non-food consumption expenditure was decreased. But there was a significant increase in the consumption of medicines of the total households, in anticipation of shortage of medicines. There was a significant decrease in the total conveyance expenditure also. But there was a significant increase in monthly conveyance expenditure of households for the people working in the banking sector and the health sector, due to the lack of public transportation and they needed to use their own vehicles and taxis.
Food consumption expenditure
The lockdown scenario indicates the decrease in income for the consumers unprecedentedly affected the market. The consumers have a reservation to go out freely to purchase their usual essential requirements during the lockdown. For example fish is not available – because there was a ban on fishing to combat the spreading of the virus. Some of them were utilizing their home grown vegetables.
However, there were no changes in the consumption of milk related products. Packaged food items consumption slightly declined due to the stalled transportation. In addition to this the price of essential commodities also increased due to no substitutes. Moreover, a strictly managed supply chain, shortage of laborers to lift stocks from the wholesale markets for essential goods and the minimal supply are the reason for increase in price of essential commodities. A close look of the Kerala society indicates the increasing in price of the essential food products due to purely a supply side matter but also an increase in demand for essential food items also the causes for increase in food prices.
In common the increase of essential food related products are in a huge demands during this lockdown is not surprising. When it comes to food consumption expenditure, the consumption of pulses has increased, even though total food expenditure has declined. Pulses were kept in stock in the fear of running out. More than 50% of households have spent very low on consumption of food due to the decreased income, they depend on ration shops for rice, wheat and other essential commodities.
The consumption of cereals slightly declined during the pandemic when compared with before the lockdown. The consumption of pulses, milk & milk products, salt & sugar are slightly increasing during this time. However, the consumption of products like pan, tobacco intoxicants and beverages are went up to nil during the lockdown because of its non-availability.
Moreover, egg, fish & meat were largely less consumed. Furthermore, vegetables and fruits were also less consumed. The market report about Kerala’s consumption shows that a reservation of people spend less for food items make us to draw a line that they are moderately affected because of the lockdown. It means their consumption pattern was altered due to their decline in income but fails to necessarily impact in the consumption of large quantity of essential food items could not be a surprise. This mainly because in particular places the consumers might have had the uninterrupted supply of essential items, well managed by the local administration gives confidence to the people makes them reserved for consuming more food items though they are essential for them for the next day use. However, the pattern of consumption obviously will not reflect the mood of entire Kerala would be a surprise for us. One thing is very clear that the consumption pattern curve drastically shifted from consumers friendly to the mood of accepting what is available in the market. Product substitutes are completely missing and consumers have not had many choices.
Conclusion
The decline in income completely decreased the purchasing power of the consumers prior to the Covid-19 indicating about the lavish spending culture of the Kerala consumers. However, the immediate short term impact of the covid-19 on Kerala’s consumption expenditure has changed from luxury to essential. We can say that the shift in consumption pattern of Kerala consumers tells us that human nature will change their attitude with in a moment when the nature changes against them for balancing. Here, the decision in change in consumption pattern is absolutely based on their survival.
Many express their fear would be well perceived that the consumption pattern of spending model will be around the food and necessity items than the luxury products will stay for a long term till the pandemic should be contained with the vaccine. The main reason for this is the lack of purchasing power. When the liquidity flow become normal then the consumption pattern also will be come to a normal stage. It means that when the difficult times disappear, the consumption pattern will also change.
Now the Indian government and the WHO also started saying that until the vaccine reach citizens the best way to handle the pandemic would be to live with the virus. At the same time how the government will be going to resume the economic activity will decide our income in the coming days. Accordingly the pendulum of the consumption pattern will also swing. This is a serious debate whether the instability will resume to normal in the short-run. However, once the government relaxes the lockdown though the government order 144 still prevails, it is visible outside that people are moving out with special masks and other standard precautionary measures. Thus the economy activity will be resumed along with the warning of the virus spread.
Just before ending the arguments the pandemic teaches us lot of lessons. For the rich the pandemic would not be a big challenge. For the poor it will be a disaster. For the middle class if they have enough savings their consumption pattern will not alter extremely but they always will be very cautious.
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July 31, 2020 at 06:00AM
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Covid-19: Implications on Kerala's Consumption Expenditure Pattern - Modern Diplomacy
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