igcse notes

1. BANGLADESH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, DAMMAM
Chapter-17, Households
2nd Term Note
Prepared by : Mrs.Ashina Fathima
Disposable income is the income of person after all income-related taxes and charges have
been deducted.
Spending (Consumption)
The buying of goods and services is called consumption. The money spent on consumption is
called consumer expenditure.
People consume in order to satisfy their needs and wants and give them satisfaction.
Factors affecting consumption:
 Disposable income: the more the disposable income, the more people consume.
 Wealth: the more wealthy (having assets such as property, jewels, company shares) a person is,
the more he spends.
 Consumer confidence: if consumers are confident of keeping their jobs and their future
incomes, then they might be encouraged to spend more now, without worries.
 Interest rates: if interest rates provided by banks on saving are high, consumers might save
more so they can earn interest and thus consumer expenditure will fall.
Saving
Saving is income not spent (or delaying consumption until some later date). People can save
money by depositing in banks, and withdraw it a later date with the interest.
Factors affecting saving:
 Saving for consumption: people save so that they can consume later. They save money so that
they can make bigger purchases in the future (a house, a car etc). Thus, saving can depend on
the consumers’ future plans.
 Disposable income: if the amount of disposable income people have is high, the more likely
that they will save. Thus, rich people save a higher proportion of their incomes than poor
people.

2.  Interest rates: people also save so that their savings may increase overtime with the interest
added. Interest is the return on saving; the longer you save an amount and the higher the
amount, the higher the interest received.
 Consumer confidence: if the consumer is not confident about his job security and incomes in
the future, he may save more now.
 Availability of saving schemes: banks now offer a variety of saving schemes. When there are
more attractive schemes that can benefit consumers, they might resort to saving rather than
spending.
Borrowing
Borrowing, as the word suggests, is simply the borrowing of money from a person/institution.
The lender gives the borrower money. The lender is usually the bank which gives out loans to
customers.
Factors affecting borrowing:
 Interest rates: interest is also the cost of borrowing. When a person takes a loan, he must repay
the entire amount at the end of a fixed period while also paying an amount of interest
periodically. When the interest rates rise, people will be reluctant to borrow and vice versa.
 Wealth/Income: banks will be more willing to lend to wealthy and high-income earning people,
because they are more likely to be able to repay the loan, rather than the poor. So even if they
would like to borrow, the poor end up being able to borrow much lesser than the rich.
 Consumer confidence: how confident people feel about their financial situation in the future
may affect borrowing too. For example, if they think that prices will rise (inflation) in the future,
they might borrow now, to make big purchases now.
 Ways of borrowing: the no. of ways to borrow can influence borrowing. Nowadays there are
many borrowing facilities such as overdrafts, bank loans etc. and there are more credit (future
payment) options such as hire purchases (payment is done in installments overtime), credit
cards etc.
Expenditure patterns between income groups
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The richer people spend, save and borrow more amounts than the poor.
The poor spend higher proportions of their disposable income, especially on necessities, than
the rich.
The poor save lesser proportions of their disposable income in comparison with the rich.