Consumption

The value of goods and services that satisfy current wants. Total consumption consists of private and public consumption.

Estimation Notes

Consumption is mainly based on household surveys such as the Consumer Expenditure Survey in the US. Consumption does not equal expenditure. There are many household expenditures which should be excluded from our measure of consumption: purchase of a house, purchase of a consumer durable (cars, furniture), purchase of financial instruments (stocks, bonds, etc), purchase of insurance contracts (life insurance, health insurance) and purchases of gifts for someone outside the household. Relying mainly on consumer expenditure surveys, we will want to keep track of these different types of expenditures. Likewise, there are many other sources of consumption which may not counted recorded in household expenditure surveys: services derived from housing and consumer durables, gifts received, services received such as medical care (whether privately or publicly funded), and those provided by the government such as education, roads/highways, police protection, fire protection. These need to be estimated.

Estimating value of services from consumer durables

Here's some suggestions from the US's BEA. Alternative Treatments of Consumer Durables in National Accounts