by Calculated Risk on 8/30/2013 08:30:00 AM

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

Personal income increased $14.1 billion, or 0.1 percent, ... in July, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $16.3 billion, or 0.1 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased less than 0.1 percent in July, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent in June. ... The price index for PCE increased 0.1 percent in July, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent in June. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.1 percent, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent.

Core PCE increased at a 2.6% annual rate in July, but only a 1.2% annual rate in Q2.

The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through July (2009 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

Click on graph for larger image.

The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE.

This is a slow start to Q3.

On inflation, the PCE price index increased at a 1.1% annual rate in July, and core PCE prices increased only at a 0.9% annual rate.