by Calculated Risk on 5/27/2011 08:53:00 AM
Friday, May 27, 2011
Personal Income and Outlays increased 0.4% in April
The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for April:
Personal income increased $46.1 billion, or 0.4 percent ... Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $41.5 billion, or 0.4 percent.The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through April (2005 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.
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Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.1 percent in April, the same increase as in March.
![Personal Consumption Expenditures](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB1Q2UC3WU0SUjCMaPeYFXU_wV0BQ3SBrzR2r-0OcQt3U-fLWCJAOXv8MURJOpiARBkkdBU33k9wpgrAMPc1X8mI8fAtXE8Ax4bstECiOt2XUE9ZitN5vQeDRsFgvmIxK5oiiG0g/s320/PCEApril2011.jpg)
PCE increased 0.4% in April, but real PCE only increased 0.1% as the price index for PCE increased 0.3 percent in April. The graph shows the recent slowdown in the growth rate in real PCE.
Note: The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.2 percent.
The personal saving rate was at 4.9% in April.
Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $570.6 billion in April, compared with $576.7 billion in March. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 4.9 percent in April, the same as in March.
![Personal Saving rate](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3wu2A6KGsU4nee__D1XDZtVks2_BCRWLXusMLeOP4NujSUTyjsGUcSOg2Q-h3iSLPHoq1WzdJM9PgIW86-3swlDYp6rso_XLN9M3Ojhgh05evMrQU0SVMrzj0zV3dSpmdYg_f8A/s320/PersonalSavingApril2011.jpg)
The saving rate has declined even as growth for real personal consumption expenditures has slowed. Part of this is due to higher overall inflation and higher oil / gasoline prices.