Updated: 27-May-22 09:25 ET

April Personal Income and Spending

Updated: 27-May-22 09:25 ET

Highlights

• Personal income increased 0.4% month-over-month (Briefing.com consensus 0.5%) following an unrevised 0.5% increase in March.
• Personal spending rose 0.9% month-over-month (Briefing.com consensus 0.6%) following an upwardly revised 1.4% increase (from 1.1%) in March.
• The PCE Price Index was up 0.2% month-over-month (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) and the core-PCE Price Index, which excludes food and energy, was up 0.3% month-over-month, as expected.

Key Factors

• Wages and salaries increased 0.6% month-over-month.
• Personal current transfer receipts were flat month-over-month.
• Real disposable personal income was down 6.2% year-over-year, marking the fifth straight decline.
• Real personal spending was up 2.8% year-over-year versus 2.6% in March.

Big Picture

• The key takeaway from the report is that there was a moderation in the year-over-year rates for the price indexes, which will support the peak inflation narrative. The PCE Price Index was up 6.3% year-over-year, versus 6.6% in March, and the core-PCE Price Index, the one the Fed watches most closely, was up 4.9% year-over-year, versus 5.2% in March.
• Still, we'd be remiss not to mention that the spending increase outpaced the income increase in April. The drop in the personal savings rate as a percentage of disposable personal income, to 4.4% from 5.0% in March, corroborates the claim that consumers were spending out of savings either to maintain their standard of living or to absorb the impact of higher prices for most goods and services.

Category	APR	MAR	FEB	JAN	DEC
Personal Income
Total Income	0.4%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.5%
Wage and Salary	0.6%	0.7%	1.1%	0.5%	0.8%
Disposable Income	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	-0.9%	0.3%
Savings Rate	4.4%	5.0%	5.9%	6.0%	8.7%
Personal Consumption
Total (Nominal)	0.9%	1.4%	0.6%	2.1%	-0.9%
Total (Real, Chain $)	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	1.5%	-1.4%
Core PCE Deflator
Month/Month	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%
Year/Year	4.9%	5.2%	5.3%	5.1%	4.9%