STOCKHOLM: British economist Angus Deaton won the 2015 economics Nobel Prize for "his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

"To design economic policy that promotes welfare and reduces poverty, we must first understand individual consumption choices," the award-giving body said on announcing the 8 million Swedish crown ($978,000) prize. "More than anyone else, Angus Deaton has enhanced this understanding."

The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968. It was not part of the original group of awards set out in dynamite tycoon Nobel's 1895 will. ($1 = 8.1803 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Daniel Dickson; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)