The Structure of Ukrainian Household’s Consumer Spending as a Reflection of the National Production’s Interaction with the Population Needs

Abstract

This article is devoted to the refinement of factors determining the structure of Ukrainian households’ consumption spending and approaches to interpretation of shifts in such structure in context of population well-being. It contains analysis with using indexes of real volume of consumption, combined with the localization of causes determining fluctuations in relative prices by commodity group. The results of such analysis should create preconditions to clarify the contribution of certain industries and commodity groups in the dynamics of consumer welfare. In particular, what kind of consequences for the structure of consumer expenditure and volumes of consumption certain product categories would be caused by the various combinations of market and nonmarket prices, government and nongovernment suggestion? What impact of large-scale government program to provide free goods and services will have on the consumption patterns? It was obtained that the critically high share of food expenditure converts such expenditure into a powerful reserve of increasing the consumers’ demand for other goods and services, including whose, which share in total spending would be increasing in case of income growth according to Engel’s law.