US Personal Income and Outlays Rise in December

On Friday, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that personal income rose $86.2 billion, or 0.3%, in December. Disposable personal income rose $75.7 billion, or 0.3%, while personal consumption expenditures rose $91.0 billion, or 0.4%.

Month-over-month, the PCE price index rose 0.4% in December. Excluding food and energy, the index also rose 0.4%.

Year-over-year, the PCE price index increased 2.9% in December. Excluding food and energy, the index was up 3.0% from a year earlier.

Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—rose $90.2 billion in December. Personal saving totaled $830.8 billion, and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 3.6%.

The change in current-dollar personal income primarily reflected increases in personal current transfer receipts and compensation. The $91.0 billion increase in current-dollar PCE reflected a $98.5 billion increase in spending on services and a $7.5 billion decrease in spending on goods.