by Calculated Risk on 11/29/2018 08:41:00 AM

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

Personal income increased $84.9 billion (0.5 percent) in October according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $81.7 billion (0.5 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $86.9 billion (0.6 percent).

Real DPI increased 0.3 percent in October and Real PCE increased 0.4 percent. The PCE price index increased 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent.

The October PCE price index increased 2.0 percent year-over-year and the October PCE price index, excluding food and energy, also increased 1.8 percent year-over-year.

The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through October 2018 (2012 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

Click on graph for larger image.

The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE.

The increase in personal income, and the increase in PCE, were both above expectations.