Personal Income, Disposable Income, and Personal Consumption Expenditures All Up in March

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported on Friday (4-28-23) that, according to its estimates, personal income (PI) increased $67.9 billion, or 0.3%, in March. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $71.7 billion, or 0.4%. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $8.2 billion, or less than 0.1%.

The PCE price index increased 0.1% in March. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3%. Real DPI increased 0.3%, and real PCE decreased less than 0.1%; goods decreased 0.4% and services decreased 0.1%.

Year-over-year, the PCE price index for March increased 4.2%. This reflects prices for goods increasing 1.6%, and the prices for services increasing 5.5%. Food prices increased 8.0%, and energy prices decreased 9.8%. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 4.6% from one year ago.

Personal outlays increased $21.5 billion in March. Personal saving was $1.00 trillion, and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 5.1%.