Some Problems Of The Measurement Of Total Consumption In Hungary

Hungary has a relatively long tradition with the “Total Consumption of the Population” (TCP); this category has been regularly compiled and published in Hungarian statistics since the early sixties. The article summarises the experiences with this concept and discusses a number of open questions both of national and international interest. One of these questions relates to the treatment of subsidies. On one hand it can be argued that subsidised prices are intermediate cases between the full price and free of charge cases and therefore the subsidy should be included in TCP; on the other hand, however, subsidies can also be interpreted as negative indirect taxes and therefore there is no reason for their inclusion. The article discusses both the arguments for and against the inclusion of subsidies in TCP. Another issue is the problem of valuing consumption from own agricultural production, where the existing international recommendations—valuation at producer prices—may be questioned. There are other parts of non‐marketed consumption valuation of which causes several serious problems. In Hungary a special problem appears with regard to the services of owner‐occupied dwellings. In the case of valuation of services provided by producers of government there are unsolved questions, too, where the formal following of the international recommendations does not give a fully acceptable solution. The authors agree with those who think that it is necessary to make a distinction between consumption and consumption expenditure and to include the fringe benefits provided by enterprises in TCP.