Twenty-three percent of household budgets in Turkey was spent on food and non-alcoholic beverages in 2009 and 1.9 percent was spent on education and health. The report has also shown that the monthly average expenditure per household was estimated at TL 1,688 in Turkey in 2009. This was TL 1,891 for urban areas and TL 1,181 for rural areas.
The TurkStat survey has shown that the share of expenditure on food and furniture increased in 2009 compared to the preceding year, while housing and transportation expenditure decreased in the same period.
When comparing the results of the survey in 2009 with those of 2008, the share of food expenditure in the total household budget increased to 23 percent from 22.6 percent. The share of expenditure on housing and rent decreased from 29.1 percent in 2008 to 28.2 percent in 2009. People also spent less on clothing and transportation in the same period. Spending on clothing decreased from 5.4 percent to 5.1 percent while transportation expenditure also decreased from 14.1 percent to 13.6 percent.
On the other hand, the share of expenditure on alcoholic beverages and tobacco products increased to 4.1 percent in 2009 from 3.8 percent a year before. The expenditure on furniture increased to 6.2 percent from 5.8 percent while people spent more of their household income on hotels and restaurants in 2009, which jumped to 5.2 percent from 4.4 percent in 2008.
An interesting detail in the survey showed that the share of food spending of households with lower incomes was twice that of households with higher incomes in 2009.
