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Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Personal Income, Spending flat in June

by Calculated Risk on 8/03/2010 08:30:00 AM

From the BEA: Personal Income and Outlays, June 2010

Personal income increased $3.0 billion, or less than 0.1 percent ... Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $2.9 billion, or less than 0.1 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.1 percent in June, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent in May.
...
Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 6.4 percent in June
Personal Saving rateClick on graph for large image.

This graph shows the saving rate starting in 1959 (using a three month trailing average for smoothing) through the June Personal Income report. The saving rate increased to 6.4% in June (increased to 6.2% using a three month average).

I expect the saving rate to rise some more over the next year, perhaps to 8% or so - keeping the pace of PCE growth below income growth. But the good news is the saving rate is much higher than orginally estimated, so much of the expected drag from an increase in the saving rate has already happened.