Personal income rises 0.3%, expenditures up 0.6% in April

Personal income rose 0.3%, or by $49.5 billion, in April, from the previous month, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposal personal income rose 0.4%, or by $60.9 billion, and personal consumption expenditures increased 0.6%, or by $79.8 billion.

In April, real disposable personal income rose 0.2% and real personal consumption expenditures increased 0.4%. Real values are inflation-adjusted estimates. The personal consumption expenditures price index increased 0.2%, and excluding food and energy, the index rose by the same percentage.

Personal income rose as a result of increases in wages and salaries, personal interest income and government social benefit payments — including veteran’s benefits and Medicare, according to the BEA. Real personal consumption expenditures increased by $42.8 billion as a result of a $15.4 billion increase in spending for goods and a $27.5 billion increase in spending for services. Expenditures for gasoline and other energy goods contributed to the rise in spending for goods. Spending on household utilities contributed to the rise in services expenditures.

The personal consumption expenditures price index rose 2% in April, from the same month in 2017. Excluding food and energy, the index rose 1.8%, from the same month in 2017.

Personal outlays rose $86.9 billion in April, from March, according to the BEA. Personal saving was $419.6 billion, and the personal saving rate, which is personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 2.8%.