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Personal Income and Consumption
? Source: The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the
Department of Commerce.
? Release Time: 8:30 ET around the first
business day of the month (data for two months prior).
? Raw Data
Available At: http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/rels.htm
-- see personal income release.
Personal income measures any sources of income. Of course, the largest portion of total income is wages and salaries, a figure, which can be deduced using payrolls and earnings data from an employment report. There are many other categories of income beyond that, not excluding rental income, government subsidy payments, interest income, and dividend income. Personal income is used to ascertain future consumer demand, but there are instabilities. Recessions come about when consumers stop spending, which then in turn drives down income growth. Looking solely at income growth, one may therefore miss the factor of the variable consumers who may stop spending.
The income report also includes a section covering personal
consumption expenditures (PEC). PCE is comprised of three sections:
durables, nondurables, and services. The report is ranked well below
retail sales in terms of market importance. The retail sales report
will provide a good read on durable and nondurable consumption, while
service costs tend to grow at a fairly steady pace, making this a
relatively boring and predictable report.
|
JAN |
FEB |
MAR |
APR |
MAY |
JUNE |
JULY |
AUG |
SEPT |
OCT |
NOV |
DEC | |
| 2007 | 1.0% | 0.6% | 0.7% | -0.1% | 0.4% |