Yet as we can see from the consumption figures, it does seem to work as a method of achieving the desired goal.
Consumption figures also exclude spending on residential housing.
ECONOMIST: China's households are not as tight-fisted as you think
As noted in previous posts, current consumption figures do not reflect the expected growth in areas such as chemical industry feedstocks, or power generation (where most new fossil-based supply will come from highly efficient gas-fired generators).
Motorists are often frustrated by their inability to match official fuel consumption figures, so the magazine has used the data to create an online calculator that will help them work out their true miles per gallon.
The decline in August electricity consumption mirrors other figures.
This also makes per capita consumption hard to measure, with official figures sometimes well below actual consumption rates.
For example, you might compare data on cash transactions or electricity consumption with official output figures.
Although demand-side figures (measuring consumption) show flat spending, supply-side statistics (measuring production) point to healthy growth.
The new figures pushed up consumption growth for 2002 and 2003, and raised it last year to 3.7% from 3.3%.
Latest monthly figures on gasoline consumption show a decline of 1 percent.
But several economists also believe the official figures understate private consumption.
ECONOMIST: At least one of China��s economic imbalances is narrowing
But the Wine and Spirit Trade Association said recent figures showed alcohol consumption was falling and there was little evidence showing that a minimum price would reduce problem drinking.
Official figures show that global consumption of fish and seafood per person is rising steeply - but research also reveals that much of what gets sold turns out to be not as described on the packet.
Far from it, senior figures say that domestic consumption can never replace it, and what it more they are happy to make the case that their technological prowess and industrial base benefits all of Europe.
Some people argue that private consumption is actually far stronger than the official figures suggest.
The estimates of total primary energy consumption are those of the EIA. For GDP figures, the EIA used data from Global Insight.
Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America, argues that what really stands out in the latest GDP figures is the 3.5% annualised growth in personal consumption.
The figures from the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport revealed that alcohol consumption and smoking were the main factors in nearly 63% of reported incidents, and 78% of cases involved male passengers.
Drinks are a good place to be in right now: Fruit juice and dairy products are rising 18% a year in consumption, much faster than the 15% for the beverage industry overall, according to figures from the Soft Drink Industry Association (Asrim).
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The recast figures showed a bigger share of services in the economy, but a smaller share of consumption.
ECONOMIST: China's households are not as tight-fisted as you think
The latest NHS figures were published two weeks ago and they suggest that in England, the average weekly consumption in 2008 was nearly 17 units for men and nearly nine units for women.
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