by Calculated Risk on 11/23/2011 08:56:00 AM

The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for October:

Personal income increased $48.1 billion, or 0.4 percent ... in October, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $8.2 billion, or 0.1 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.1 percent in October, compared with an increase of 0.5 percent in September. ... PCE price index -- The price index for PCE decreased 0.1 percent in October, in contrast to an increase of 0.2 percent in September.

The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through October (2005 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

Click on graph for larger image.

PCE increased 0.1% in October, and real PCE increased 0.1%.

Note: The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.1 percent.

The personal saving rate was at 3.5% in October.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $400.2 billion in October, compared with $376.9 billion in September. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 3.5 percent in October, compared with 3.3 percent in September.

This graph shows the saving rate starting in 1959 (using a three month trailing average for smoothing) through the October Personal Income report.

In October, income increased faster than spending - reversing a recent trend - and the saving rate increased slightly. However the saving rate has declined sharply over the last few months. Personal income was slightly better than expected, and spending a little lower than expectations.