The PCOICOP is a detailed classification of individual consumption expenditures on goods and services incurred by the three of the five (5) institutional sectors of the 1993 and 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA), namely: (a) households, (b) general government, and (c) non-profit institutions serving households. The other two sectors, the financial corporations and non-financial  corporations are not part of the PCOICOP. The PCOICOP was patterned after the 1999 Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) developed by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and serves as one of the functional classification systems in the 1993 and 2008 SNA.

The 2009 PCOICOP will serve as: (a) a framework for the aggregation and integration of the Household/Personal Consumption Expenditures in the SNA; (b) an input in the formulation of  the basket of goods for the Consumer Price Index; (c) a guide in the classification of goods and services for the Family Income and Expenditure Survey and Commodity Outlet Survey; and (d) a tool in the analysis of individual consumption expenditures.

The 2009 PCOICOP was developed by the NSCB in consultation with  the data users and producers. It  was reviewed and recommended by the Technical Committee on Statistical Standards and Classifications (TC-SSC) through its Technical Working Group on Expenditure Classification (TWG-EC) composed of experts from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), National Statistics Office (NSO), Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI),  and NSCB.   

Pursuant to NSCB Resolution No. 008, series of 2010 and NSCB Memorandum Circular No. 02-10, all concerned government agencies and instrumentalities are enjoined to adopt the 2009  PCOICOP.