US Personal Income and Outlays Rise in March

On Thursday, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that personal income (PI) rose $149.2 billion, or 0.6%, at a monthly rate in March. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—rose $142.5 billion, or 0.6%. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $195.4 billion, or 0.9%.

Month-over-month, the PCE price index rose 0.7%. Excluding food and energy, the index rose 0.3%.

Year-over-year, the PCE price index rose 3.5% in March. Excluding food and energy, the index was up 3.2% from a year earlier.

Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—rose $198.6 billion in March. Personal saving was $857.3 billion, and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of DPI—was 3.6%.

The change in current-dollar personal income primarily reflected increases in compensation and farm proprietors’ income, partly offset by a decrease in other government social benefits, BEA said. The $195.4 billion increase in current-dollar PCE in March reflected increases of $132.6 billion in spending on goods and $62.9 billion in spending on services.