South Korea’s monthly average household spending on food and non-alcoholic beverage items reached 349,000 won last year, with the Engel coefficient against the total spending coming at 13.7 percent, the lowest since 2003.

The average consumer spending was 2.55 million won.

The drop was attributed to a decline in food prices that brought down the overall spending amount.

The coefficient, however, differed significantly among different levels of income, with the index for the low-income households marked at 20.44 percent.

Engel‘s law indicates that as income rises, the proportion of income spent on food declines.