by Calculated Risk on 10/28/2011 08:30:00 AM

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

Personal income increased $17.3 billion, or 0.1 percent ... in September ... Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $68.7 billion, or 0.6 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.5 percent in September, in contrast to a decrease of less than 0.1 percent in August. ... PCE price index -- The price index for PCE increased 0.2 percent in September, compared with an increase of 0.3 percent in August. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, decreased less than 0.1 percent.

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

Click on graph for larger image.

PCE increased 0.6 in September, and real PCE increased 0.5%.

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

The personal saving rate was at 3.6% in Setpember.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $419.8 billion in September, compared with $479.1 billion in August. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 3.6 percent in September, compared with 4.1 percent in August.

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

Spending is growing faster than incomes - and the saving rate has been declining. That can't continue for long ...