Explain 3 Factors That Could Cause a Decrease in Consumption in an Economy

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Economics grade 11 Explain 3 factors that could cause a decrease in consumption in an economy (10 mark) Consumption, or costumer spending is the act of using up a resource, has key factors that affect whether it rises or decreases. A change in interest rates, a change in costumer confidence, a change in household wealth, a change in tax, or even a change in government spending can affect the status of consumption. One of the key factors is taxation. Taxes that increase, such as income tax and VAT/GST tax will cause a decrease in consumption. The severity of the decrease depends on how much the taxes have changed by. An increase in either Income tax or VAT/GST will result in a direct decrease in consumption, which will then result in a decrease in aggregate demand and inflation will go up. Government spending is another way to either decrease or increase consumption. If the government spending is decrease it will not affect consumption directly however it will cause a snowball effect (after government spending has decreased unemployment will increase and income will decrease), which will cause consumption to decrease, therefore leading to investments decreasing and aggregate demand increasing A change in interest rates will also increase or decrease the consumption level. If I take the contradictory monetary policy as an example it will show that; an increase in interest rates will affect investments by decreasing them and that leads to a decrease in consumption, which then continues onto aggregate demand which decreases causing inflation to decrease. This situation most often happens during “the boom” in an economy In conclusion there are many factors that could decrease consumption, however all of those factors can be turned around and used for the exact opposite, increasing consumption. They also all have an effect on aggregate demand and on
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