by Calculated Risk on 2/02/2015 08:30:00 AM

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

Personal income increased $41.3 billion, or 0.3 percent ... in December, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $40.0 billion, or 0.3 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- decreased 0.1 percent in December, in contrast to an increase of 0.7 percent in November. ... The price index for PCE decreased 0.2 percent in December, the same decrease as in November. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased less than 0.1percent in December; the price index increased less than 0.1 percent in November.

The December price index for PCE increased 0.7 percent from December a year ago. The December PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 1.3 percent from December a year ago.
...
Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $643.2 billion in December, compared with $568.2 billion in November. The personal saving rate -- personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- was 4.9 percent in December, compared with 4.3 percent in November.

A key point is that the PCE price index was only up 0.7% year-over-year (1.3% for core PCE). This is way below the Fed's 2% target.