Personal Income and Outlays, November 2018

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Personal income increased $40.2 billion (0.2%) in November according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $37.8 billion (0.2%) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $54.4 billion (0.4%).

Real DPI increased 0.2% in November and real PCE increased 0.3%. The PCE price index increased 0.1%. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1%.

The increase in personal income in November primarily reflected increases in wages and salaries and in farm proprietors’ income that were partially offset by decreases in personal dividend income and social security benefits. Farm proprietors’ income increased $14.9 billion in November, which included subsidy payments associated with the Department of Agriculture’s Market Facilitation Program.

The $42.5 billion increase in real PCE in November reflected an increase of $32.6 billion in spending for goods and a $13.2 billion increase in spending for services. Within goods, recreational goods and vehicles was the leading contributor to the increase. Within services, the largest contributor to the increase was spending for household electricity and gas.

Personal outlays increased $56.6 billion in November. Personal saving was $944.2 billion in November and the personal saving rate, personal saving as percentage of disposable personal income, was 6.0%.

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for July through October. The% change from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2012) dollar DPI and PCE.