by Calculated Risk on 11/26/2014 08:48:00 AM

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

Personal income increased $32.9 billion, or 0.2 percent ... in October, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $27.3 billion, or 0.2 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.2 percent in October, in contrast to a decrease of less than 0.1 percent in September. ... The price index for PCE increased 0.1 percent in October, the same increase as in September. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.2 percent in October, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent in September.

The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through October 2014 (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.

The increase in personal income was lower than expected,  Also the increase in PCE was below the 0.3% consensus, however that consensus was prior to the upward revisions to August and September PCE in the GDP report.  It looks like PCE is off to a decent start to Q4.

On inflation: The PCE price index increased 1.4 percent year-over-year, and at a 0.7% annualized rate in October. The core PCE price index (excluding food and energy) increased 1.6 percent year-over-year in October, and at a 2.2% annualized rate in October.