Turkey: Households spend most on housing, rent

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish households spent the most on housing and rent in 2017, accounting for almost one quarter of total annual living expenses, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed on Friday.

"According to the results of the 2017 household budget survey; while the expenditures on housing and rent had the highest share in total consumption expenditures with a rate of 24.7 percent (down from 25.2 percent in 2016), the share of expenditures on food and non-alcoholic beverages was 19.7 percent (up from 19.5 percent in 2016) in overall Turkey," the TurkStat said in a statement.

Household expenditure on health and educational services had the lowest share with 2.2 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Turkish households spent more on living expenses on a yearly basis in 2017.

"The monthly average equivalent consumption expenditures was 1,642 liras ($542) in 2016 and 1,854 liras ($508) in 2017," TurkStat said.

According to the report, the share of transportation spendings rose the most, up 0.5 percentage points, to 18.7 percent during the same period.

It added that the first income quintile allocated the highest share of their budget for living spendings on housing and rent (31.9 percent) while the fifth quintile allocated the most on transportation (23.9 percent).