Personal consumption rose 0.4 percent in August for the second straight month. Spending growth was primarily due to increased expenditures on non-durable goods. Big ticket item expenditures fell 0.1 percent, while services added modestly to growth. Consumption was 2.7 percent higher than a year prior.
The slightly slowest pace of consumption growth relative to incomes caused the savings rate to rise slightly by 0.1 percent to 5.8 percent. The savings rate has remained near this level since April.
As measured by the PCE deflator, prices increased 0.2 percent over the month. From a year prior, the PCE deflator was 1.5 percent higher, the third consecutive month below 2.0 percent. The core PCE deflator, which excludes energy and food prices, was up 0.1 percent over the month and was 1.4 percent higher from the year prior.
There was an article a few days ago questioning whether Obama has helped the US to get over the recession yet.. And I personally think we will have an answer very soon. With consumption rose by 0.4 percent, I hope that consumers will keep on spending more.
ReplyDeleteI went to the mall three times in three different days last week just to observe people and there's a sign that more people start to spend more. However, I hope that it's not a seasonal thing (X-Mas is coming)
All the numbers look good. One thing though unemployment is still close to double digits. The economy is definitely out of the recession but what the Washington needs to do is to figure out how to employ millions of Americans.
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