by Calculated Risk on 8/30/2010 08:30:00 AM
Monday, August 30, 2010
Personal Income, Spending increase in July
From the BEA: Personal Income and Outlays, July 2010
Personal income increased $30.0 billion, or 0.2 percent ... Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $44.1 billion, or 0.4 percent
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.2 percent in July, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent in June.
...
Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 5.9 percent in July, compared with 6.2 percent in June.
![Personal Income less Transfer](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYslCMYgMKf4bm8ObWNMsLCq25xNYJALyz1UMYHxYgX4A1mmDlIzZIJdq-lP0IjHp4dB0IjpqQeJIFdH5hmkU29d6vHAVfz29iIrTUiPADb8UndoKtppLm5Dk0YXCDKt82OIAD/s320/PersonalIncomeLessTransferJuly2010.jpg)
This graph shows real personal income less transfer payments since 1969.
This measure of economic activity is moving sideways - similar to what happened following the 2001 recession.
This month the saving rate decreased slightly ...
![Personal Saving rate](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkNst9zd3HCZM7edsr7lpXnjGE4azlSzOPVGWZlFZqhO3Q0s6bmHqKImnaXnOsz9tXFQ4s9HPZVzn1OEASnnjH4LsB3GYWYI9I4BahEI7Kof-iIObrg4U0ymRUxRVu8eblAfOO/s320/PersonalSavingJuly2010.jpg)
I expect the saving rate to rise further - perhaps to 8% or more.
The increase in income was good news, but personal income less transfer payments are still only 1.2% above the low of last year - and still 5.5% below the pre-recession peak.