Household Budget Survey 2017
Mauritius, 2017
Get MicrodataIdentification
MUS_2017_HBS_v01_M
Household Budget Survey 2017
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Mauritius | MUS |
Income/Expenditure/Household Survey [hh/ies]
The first Household Budget Survey (HBS) was carried out 1961/62 under the guidance of Mr. Wolf Scott, an expert from the International Labour Office (ILO) and the second one in 1975 with the assistance of an Indian Expert, Mr. D.S Ramaratnam. As from the third round in 1980/81, HBS have been carried out regularly every five years by SM staff.
Statistics Mauritius conducted its tenth Household Budget Survey (HBS) from January 2017 to December 2017 in the Republic of Mauritius. The main objective of the survey was to obtain up-to -date information on the consumption pattern of the Mauritian population mainly with a view to update the basket of goods and services used for the computation of the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI). The survey was carried out on a sample of 7,000 households spread over twelve months at the rate of around 583 households per month.
The main objectives of the HBS are:
- To determine the items of household goods and services that will constitute the updated consumer basket of goods and services whose prices are to be collected each month for the computation of the CPI,
- To derive the weight (relative importance) of each item included in the CPI basket
- To provide data on the distribution of household income and expenditure
- To supplement the data used in the household accounts for National Accounting purposes
- To provide information for the nutritional analysis of food consumption
- To provide information for poverty analysis
Sample survey data [ssd]
- Household
- Individual
Version
v0.1: Edited, anonymous dataset for public distribution.
Scope
- Demographic characteristics of household members
- Characteristics of dwellings and availability of household durable goods
- Household income
- Household expenditure
- Household indebtedness
- Household points of purchase of goods and services
Coverage
- National coverage
- The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues
The HBS 2017 covered all private non-institutional and non-residents households in the Republic of Mauritius, i.e. in both the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues. Institutional households such as hotels, hospitals, boarding houses and prisons were excluded.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Statistics Mauritius | Ministry of Finance and Economic Development |
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development | Budget |
| The Government Printing Office | Printing of survey documents |
| Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation | Publicity |
| Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment | Sponsoring of 19 YEP trainees |
Sampling
A sample of 7,000 households, out of an estimated total of 381,500, was selected for the HBS 2017. The national sample comprised 2 separate samples, one of 6,520 households (out of 368,400) for the Island of Mauritius and another of 480 households (out of 13,100) for the Island of Rodrigues. The sampling fraction for the Island of Rodrigues was higher than that for Island of Mauritius to collect adequate amount of data for the analysis of the estimates. Furthermore, to cater for better poverty analysis for Island of Mauritius, most of the regions with lowest relative development index (RDI) have been sampled. (The RDI is a composite index that measures the relative development of region). The number of households surveyed in these low RDI regions were 384, while for the other regions 6,136 households were contacted.
Oversampling of low RDI did not affect the overall results of the survey, as it has been accommodated through the weight done at the level of Primary Sampling Units (PSU). Sampling was done through a 2-stage design with probability proportional to size. At the first stage, PSU’s were selected with probability proportional to size, which was followed by selection of households within the selected PSU’s.
The HBS 2017 spanned over 12 months to account for seasonal fluctuations in consumption. Around 28% of the 7,000 households in the initial sample had to be replaced.
Survey instrument
The HBS 2017 survey used four questionnaires to collect information from private households:
-
HBS 2 - Household schedule: This schedule was used to collect information on the characteristics of the selected households and their members. Data collected covered demographic and educational characteristics of household members, activity status of each household member, characteristics of the dwelling, fuel used for cooking, household possessions, regular expenses, and irregular expenses over the past 12 months.
-
HBS 3 - Daily record of the household expenditure: This schedule was used to record detailed daily household expenditure on every item purchased during the whole survey month.
-
HBS 3B schedule: The HBS 3 was accompanied by a form HBS 3B which comprised an introductory letter addressed by the Director of Statistics to the head of the selected household, explaining the purpose of the survey and seeking for his co-operation and a set of instructions with examples for filling in the expenditure diary HBS 3.
-
HBS 4 - Income schedule: This schedule was used to collect data on the income of each income earner of the household. The schedule was completed at the end of the reference month. It served as a check on the total expenditure of the household.
-
HBS 5 - Point of purchase questionnaire: This questionnaire was used to collect information on the type of outlets where households usually purchase consumption goods and services and was completed at the end of each survey month. The relevant and important outlets and regions for the collection of price quotations to be used for the computation of monthly Consumer Price Index are derived from there. In addition, information relating to usage of public services and frequency of purchase of groceries were collected.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2017-01 | 2017-12 |
Data collection for the HBS was carried out in various stages. It took about six weeks to collect all the data needed for each survey month.
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Statistics Mauritius | Ministry of Finance and Economic Development |
Supervisors accompanied their interviewers during the first few interviews to consolidate the interviewers understanding of the instructions. Less experienced ones were identified early and given special attention. Completed questionnaires were examined, as soon as possible so that any mistake/misunderstanding could be cleared promptly and effectively. Any difficulties met by an interviewer were reported immediately to the concerned Supervisor who was responsible to deal with such cases as quickly as possible.
Supervisors needed to verify and validate all the completed questionnaires. All the expenditures recorded in the diaries by Interviewers were thoroughly looked into. The items which were not clear or inconsistent were subject to queries and were cleared out by Interviewers. Senior Supervisors closely monitored the work of Supervisors through weekly diaries of fieldwork filled in by the latter. They also helped the Supervisors to resolve some difficult cases and settle queries. They were also required to verify all questionnaires submitted by their Supervisors.
Training of field staff:
The Chief Supervisor and the three Senior Supervisors conducted all training sessions to the field staff in the Islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues.
Island of Mauritius:
For each survey month, the training was organised in two to three formal training sessions of three to four hours each on different days. Three sessions were needed when listing of households were carried out afresh and two sessions when listings of households from CMPHS were used. The training sessions were held during weekends at SM.
The first session was held around four weeks prior to the reference month. During this session, the interviewers and supervisors were briefed on the objectives, methodology and confidential aspects of the survey. They were given instructions on how to perform the listing exercise particularly on the use of 12 maps, block formation and the filling in of the listing schedule. Further, since this was the first contact with some of the field staff, certain administrative procedures such as the issue of Identity Cards, Instruction manuals and other field documents were carried out.
The second briefing session was held some ten days before the survey month. During this important session, the field staff were explained how to create and maintain a good rapport with the respondents in view of the time required by the selected households for keeping a daily record of their expenses over one month. They were briefed on interviewing techniques, the filling in of the household schedule HBS2 and emphasis was laid on the expenditure diaries HBS3; details and specifications needed for each item of expenditure were thoroughly explained. They were explained how to monitor the expenditure through the control document.
The third session was held at the end of the survey month and dealt with the income schedule HBS4 and the point of purchase questionnaire HBS5. Interviewers were briefed on how to fill in these documents and were requested to be tactful when asking questions about income. They were also explained on how to do probing in cases where the income and expenditure data showed discrepancies.
Island of Rodrigues:
In Rodrigues, it was decided to brief field staff for two survey months at one go, given the small number of field officers (1 Supervisor and 5 Interviewers) working there each month and the cost for missions from Mauritius to Rodrigues. Thus six missions were arranged during the survey period in December 2016 as well as February, April, June, August, and October 2017. Each mission lasted for about four days during which briefing sessions were held and the completed schedules for previous months were checked. Further, the Co-ordinator was given specific instructions regarding the distribution of survey documents to the Supervisors, the selection of the sample of households to be surveyed in each selected Primary Sampling Unit and checking of completed questionnaires.
Data processing
The completed schedules were checked for completeness and consistency at the office. Schedules HBS2 (Household schedule), HBS4 (Income schedule) and HBS5 (Point of Purchase questionnaire) were edited and coded directly thereon. Schedules HBS3 (expenditure diaries) were consolidated into a monthly expenditure schedule, which contained item wise expenditure during the survey month. A coding instruction manual containing all the relevant codes was supplied to each member of the editing and coding team.
Data Access
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Example:
Statistics Mauritius. Household Budget Survey (HBS) 2017. Ref. MUS_2017_HBS_v01_M. Downloaded from http://statsmauritius.govmu.org. on [date].
Disclaimer and copyrights
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics Mauritius | the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development | statsmauritius@govmu.org | http://statsmauritius.govmu.org |
Metadata production
DDI_MUS_2017_HBS_v01_M_WB
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Development Economics Data Group | The World Bank | Documentation of the DDI |
| The Sub-Saharan Team for Statistical Development | The World Bank | Documentation of the DDI |
2020-03-27
Metadata version
Version 0.1 (March 2020)