by Calculated Risk on 5/27/2011 08:53:00 AM

The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for April:

Personal income increased $46.1 billion, or 0.4 percent ... Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $41.5 billion, or 0.4 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.1 percent in April, the same increase as in March.

The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through April (2005 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

PCE increased 0.4% in April, but real PCE only increased 0.1% as the price index for PCE increased 0.3 percent in April. The graph shows the recent slowdown in the growth rate in real PCE.

Note: The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.2 percent.

The personal saving rate was at 4.9% in April.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $570.6 billion in April, compared with $576.7 billion in March. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 4.9 percent in April, the same as in March.

This graph shows the saving rate starting in 1959 (using a three month trailing average for smoothing) through the April Personal Income report.

The saving rate has declined even as growth for real personal consumption expenditures has slowed. Part of this is due to higher overall inflation and higher oil / gasoline prices.