News Release

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, Thursday, March 29, 2018
BEA 18-15

Personal Income and Outlays, February 2018

Personal income increased $67.3 billion (0.4 percent) in February according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $53.9 billion (0.4 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $27.7 billion (0.2 percent).

Real DPI increased 0.2 percent in February and Real PCE increased less than 0.1 percent. The PCE price index increased 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.2 percent.

  2017 2018
  Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb.
  Percent change from preceding month
Personal income:
Current dollars 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.4
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 0.3 0.3 0.4 1.0 0.4
Chained (2009) dollars 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.6 0.2
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE):
Current dollars 0.3 0.7 0.5 0.2 0.2
Chained (2009) dollars 0.2 0.5 0.3 -0.2 0.0
Price indexes:
PCE 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.2
PCE, excluding food and energy 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.2
Price indexes: Percent change from month one year ago
PCE 1.6 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.8
PCE, excluding food and energy 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.6

The increase in personal income in February primarily reflected increases in wages and salaries and nonfarm proprietors' income (table 3).

The $1.4 billion increase in real PCE in February reflected an increase of $1.0 billion in spending for goods and a $0.5 billion increase in spending for services (table 7). Within goods, recreational goods and vehicles was the leading contributor to the increase. Within services, financial services and insurance was the leading contributor to the increase. Detailed information on monthly real PCE spending can be found in Table 2.3.6U.

Personal outlays increased $27.8 billion in February (table 3). Personal saving was $497.4 billion in February and the personal saving rate, personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 3.4 percent (table 1).

2017 Personal Income and Outlays

Personal income (table 6) increased 3.1 percent in 2017 (that is, from the 2016 annual level to the 2017 annual level), compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in 2016. DPI increased 2.9 percent in 2017 compared with an increase of 2.6 percent in 2016. In 2017, PCE increased 4.5 percent, compared with an increase of 4.0 percent in 2016.

Real DPI increased 1.2 percent in 2017, compared with an increase of 1.4 percent in 2016. Real PCE (table 8) increased 2.8 percent, compared with an increase of 2.7 percent in 2016.

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for October through January. The percent change from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2009) dollar DPI and PCE -- revised and as published in last month's release -- are shown below.

  Change from preceeding month
  December January
  Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised
  (Billions of dollars) (Percent) (Billions of dollars) (Percent)
Personal income:
Current dollars 63.2 67.8 0.4 0.4 64.7 74.7 0.4 0.4
Disposable Personal income:
Current dollars 52.2 56.4 0.4 0.4 134.8 142.7 0.9 1.0
Chained (2009) dollars 27.4 31.5 0.2 0.2 71.0 75.7 0.6 0.6
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars 53.1 62.7 0.4 0.5 31.2 21.3 0.2 0.2
Chained (2009) dollars 29.3 38.1 0.2 0.3 -17.0 -27.7 -0.1 -0.2

Next release: April 30, 2018 at 8:30 A.M. EDT Personal Income and Outlays: March 2018