Commerce Dept: Disposable Personal Incomes Down, Personal Spending Up
Down .2 percent, up .4 percent
Personal income in the U.S. came in nearly unchanged in the month of December, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Friday, although the report still showed a bigger than expected increase in personal spending for the month.
The report said personal income inched up by less than a tenth of a percent in December after rising by 0.2 percent in November. Economists had been expecting another 0.2 percent increase.
Meanwhile, disposable personal income, or personal income less personal current taxes, dropped by 0.2 percent in December after inching up by 0.1 percent in the previous month.
The modest drop in disposable personal income was partly due to a $14.3 billion decrease in farm proprietors' income.
At the same time, the Commerce Department said personal spending climbed by 0.4 percent in December following a 0.6 percent increase in November. The spending growth exceeded economist estimates for a 0.2 percent uptick.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?