by Calculated Risk on 6/29/2016 08:37:00 AM

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

Personal income increased $37.1 billion, or 0.2 percent ... according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $53.5 billion, or 0.4 percent.
...
Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.3 percent in May, compared with an increase of 0.8 percent in April. ... The price index for PCE increased 0.2 percent in May, compared with an increase of 0.3 percent in April. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.2 percent, the same increase as in April.

The May PCE price index increased 0.9 percent from May a year ago. The May PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 1.6 percent from May a year ago.

The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through February 2016 (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 slightly less than expected.  And the increase in PCE was at the 0.4% increase consensus.

On inflation: The PCE price index increased 0.9 percent year-over-year due to the sharp decline in oil prices. The core PCE price index (excluding food and energy) increased 1.6 percent year-over-year in May.

Using the two-month method to estimate Q2 PCE growth, PCE was increasing at a 4.1% annual rate in Q2 2016 (using the mid-month method, PCE was increasing 4.1%). This suggests solid PCE growth in Q2.