Personal Spending Rose 0.5% in September

This morning, the government reported that personal spending rose 0.5% in September. That’s a pretty good number. Personal income rose by 0.3%. Economists had been expecting increases of 0.4% for both.

Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of total output in the U.S. and household outlays have been the main driver of economic growth throughout most of the expansion. But Americans had appeared more cautious in recent months amid declining confidence in the economy.

In the third quarter of the year, personal-consumption expenditures rose at a 2.1% pace, down from 4.3% during the prior period, according to separate data released last week. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, meanwhile, matched a two-year low in October.

Here’s personal spending (PCE) going back a few years:

Posted by on October 31st, 2016 at 11:19 am


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