Personal Consumption

May 2018’s iteration for income and outlays from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is one of the most interesting we have seen in a while.  Both components of the report improved, and consumers actually increased their savings rate, but none of that captured Atlas’ intrigue.  Instead, inflation data stole the show. 

Incomes and outlays improved to start the second quarter of this year according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  Personal income rose 0.3 percent in April 2018, and spending jumped 0.6 percent.  Disposable personal income (DPI), aka after-tax pay, rose 0.4 percent or $60.9 billion, leading to some decay in the nation’s savings rate. 

Personal income and spending each improved to end 2017, but their rates of change were different.  Americans’ pay managed to grow just 0.3 percent while outlays increased 0.5 percent.  Additionally, there was a key revision to the prior period’s tally as outlays actually increased 0.8 percent (originally 0.6 percent), but November’s income tally remained as initially

Personal income rose 0.4 percent in September 2017 according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  This $66.9 billion uptick accelerated from August’s increase of 0.2 percent.  Likewise, disposable personal income, aka after-tax pay, improved 0.4 percent.  Americans used the additional take-home pay to partially fund their 1.0 percent increase in consumption.  Since out

Income and outlays improved in August 2017 according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal income rose 0.2 percent or $28.6 billion. Subtracting taxes, disposable personal income (DPI) increased $14.9 billion or 0.1 percent.