by Calculated Risk on 2/12/2020 10:13:00 AM

Note: Back in early 2016, I noted that energy expenditures as a percentage of PCE had hit an all time low. Here is an update through the December 2019 PCE report released last week.

Below is a graph of expenditures on energy goods and services as a percent of total personal consumption expenditures through December 2019.

This is one of the measures that Professor Hamilton at Econbrowser looks at to evaluate any drag on GDP from energy prices.


Click on graph for larger image.

Data source: BEA.

The huge spikes in energy prices during the oil crisis of 1973 and 1979 are obvious. As is the increase in energy prices during the 2001 through 2008 period.

In December 2019, energy expenditures as a percentage of PCE was at 4.05% of PCE, up somewhat from the all time low of 3.65% in February 2016.

Energy as a percent of GDP has been generally trending down, and historically this is a low percentage of PCE for energy expenditures.