Housing dominates household spending

The average weekly household net expenditure was $956 for the year ended 30 June 2007, with housing-related costs making up the largest component, Statistics New Zealand said today.

Results from the three-yearly Household Expenditure Survey show that 23 percent ($224) of the average weekly householdexpenditure was on housing-related costs such as mortgage and rent payments, council rates and energycosts.

Households in the Wellington region had the highest proportion of household expenditure on housing andenergy costs, at 27 percent.

Nationally, the next largest components of average weekly household expenditure were food (16 percent)and transport (14 percent).

Average household spending on food was $156 per week, with 44 percent ofthis expenditure going on grocery items.

Transport costs averaged $136 per week per household.

Petrolwas the single largest item of expenditure within this group, accounting for $38 of transport costs.

Expenditure estimates in this release cannot be compared with those in previous releases due to changesto classifications and methodology since the 2003/04 survey.

Other survey results showed that average household income increased 10.2 percent in the three yearssince the last Household Economic Survey in 2003/04.

The average annual income for the 2006/07 yearwas $67,973.

The increase was driven primarily by wages and salaries, investment income and governmentbenefits.

The survey also showed that most people (75 percent) reported they were satisfied or very satisfied withtheir material standard of living, regardless of their geographic location or level of income