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EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EST, FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021

BEA 21-03

Personal Income and Outlays, December 2020

Personal income increased $116.6 billion (0.6 percent) in December according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 3 and 5). Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $111.6 billion (0.6 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $27.9 billion (0.2 percent).

Real DPI increased 0.2 percent in December and Real PCE decreased 0.6 percent (tables 5 and 7). The PCE price index increased 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent (table 9).

	2020
	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
	Percent change from preceding month
Personal income:
Current dollars	-2.6	0.8	-0.7	-1.3	0.6
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars	-3.1	0.8	-0.8	-1.5	0.6
Chained (2012) dollars	-3.3	0.6	-0.8	-1.5	0.2
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE):
Current dollars	1.2	1.3	0.3	-0.7	-0.2
Chained (2012) dollars	0.9	1.1	0.2	-0.7	-0.6
Price indexes:
PCE	0.3	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.4
PCE, excluding food and energy	0.3	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.3
Price indexes:	Percent change from month one year ago
PCE	1.2	1.4	1.2	1.1	1.3
PCE, excluding food and energy	1.4	1.5	1.4	1.4	1.5

COVID-19 Impact on December 2020 Personal Income and Outlays

The December estimate for personal income and outlays was impacted by the response to the spread of COVID-19. Many provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act continued to wind down before the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act was enacted on December 27, 2020. Additionally, new restrictions and closures took effect in some areas of the United States. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the personal income and outlays estimate because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified. For more information, see Effects of Selected Federal Pandemic Response Programs on Personal Income.

The increase in personal income in December primarily reflected increases in government social benefits, compensation, and personal dividend income that were partly offset by a decrease in proprietors’ income (table 3).

Within government social benefits, unemployment insurance increased reflecting an increase in pandemic unemployment compensation, the supplemental weekly payments to unemployment beneficiaries re-introduced through the CRRSA Act. There was also an increase in “other” social benefits, reflecting an increase in payments from the Provider Relief Fund to nonprofit institutions.
Within compensation, the main contributor was an increase in wages and salaries in service-producing industries based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics.
The increase in personal dividend income reflected data from company financial reports.
Within proprietors’ income, both farm and nonfarm decreased based on declines in Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses. Farm proprietors’ income was also impacted by a decrease in payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

The $79.8 billion decrease in real PCE in December reflected a decrease of $71.9 billion in spending for goods and a $17.6 billion decrease in spending for services (table 7). Within goods, durable goods (led by recreational goods and vehicles) and nondurable goods (led by food and beverages) both contributed to the decrease and were partly offset by an increase in spending for motor vehicles and parts (led by new light trucks). Within services, the largest contributors were decreases in spending for food services and accommodations (led by food services) and spending for health care (led by hospitals). These were partly offset by an increase in spending for household utilities (led by electricity). Detailed information on monthly real PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.6U.

Personal outlays decreased $39.2 billion in December (table 3). Personal saving was $2.38 trillion in December and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 13.7 percent (table 1).

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for October and November. Revised and previously published changes from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2012) dollar DPI and PCE, are shown below.

	Change from preceding month
	October				November
	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised
	(Billions of dollars)		(Percent)		(Billions of dollars)		(Percent)
Personal income:
Current dollars	-127.4	-134.6	-0.6	-0.7	-221.8	-255.9	-1.1	-1.3
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars	-130.5	-143.4	-0.7	-0.8	-218.0	-255.7	-1.2	-1.5
Chained (2012) dollars	-121.1	-132.5	-0.8	-0.8	-197.3	-229.6	-1.3	-1.5
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars	47.4	37.9	0.3	0.3	-63.3	-99.0	-0.4	-0.7
Chained (2012) dollars	38.9	30.6	0.3	0.2	-58.5	-89.2	-0.4	-0.7

* * *

Next release: February 26, 2021 at 8:30 A.M. EST
Personal Income and Outlays, January 2021

* * *

Personal Income and Outlays Release Dates for 2021
Estimate	Release Date
December 2020	January 29, 2021
January 2021	February 26, 2021
February 2021	March 26, 2021
March 2021	April 30, 2021
April 2021	May 28, 2021
May 2021	June 25, 2021
June 2021	July 30, 2021
July 2021	August 27, 2021
August 2021	October 1, 2021
September 2021	October 29, 2021
October 2021	November 24, 2021
November 2021	December 23, 2021

Full Release & Tables (PDF)

Tables Only (Excel)

Release Highlights (PDF)

Historical Comparisons (PDF)

Effects of Selected Federal Pandemic Response Programs on Personal Income (PDF)

Effects of Selected Federal Pandemic Response Programs on Personal Income (Excel)

Personal Income

Lisa Mataloni

301-278-9083

piniwd@bea.gov

PCE Goods

Kyle Brown

301-278-9086

pce@bea.gov

PCE Services

Jeff Barnett

301-278-9663

pce@bea.gov

News Media

Jeannine Aversa

(301) 278-9003

Jeannine.Aversa@bea.gov

Resources

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Historical time series for these estimates can be accessed in BEA’s Interactive Data Application.
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For more on BEA’s statistics, see our monthly online journal, the Survey of Current Business.
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NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts

Definitions

Personal income is the income received by, or on behalf of, all persons from all sources: from participation as laborers in production, from owning a home or business, from the ownership of financial assets, and from government and business in the form of transfers. It includes income from domestic sources as well as the rest of world. It does not include realized or unrealized capital gains or losses.

Disposable personal income e is the income available to persons for spending or saving. It is equal to personal income less personal current taxes.

Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is the value of the goods and services purchased by, or on the behalf of, “persons” who reside in the United States.

Personal outlays is the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments.

Personal saving is personal income less personal outlays and personal current taxes.

The personal saving rate is personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income.

Current-dollar estimates are valued in the prices of the period when the transactions occurred—that is, at “market value.” Also referred to as “nominal estimates” or as “current-price estimates.”

Real values are inflation-adjusted estimates—that is, estimates that exclude the effects of price changes.

For more definitions, see the Glossary: National Income and Product Accounts.

Statistical conventions

Annual rates. Monthly and quarterly values are expressed at seasonally-adjusted annual rates (SAAR). Dollar changes are calculated as the difference between these SAAR values. For detail, see the FAQ “Why does BEA publish estimates at annual rates?”

Calendar years and quarters. Unless noted otherwise, annual data are presented on a calendar-year basis (i.e., covering January through December). Quarterly data are presented on a calendar-quarter basis (i.e., Q1 = January, February, March; Q2 = April, May, June; Q3 = July, August, September; Q4 = October, November, December).

Month-to-month percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are not annualized.

Quarter-to-quarter percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are displayed at annual rates. For detail, see the FAQ “How is average annual growth calculated?” and “Why does BEA publish percent changes in quarterly series at annual rates?”

Quantities and prices. Quantities, or “real” volume measures, and prices are expressed as index numbers with a specified reference year equal to 100 (currently 2012). Quantity and price indexes are calculated using a Fisherchained weighted formula that incorporates weights from two adjacent periods (months for monthly data, quarters for quarterly data and annuals for annual data). For details on the calculation of quantity and price indexes, see Chapter 4: Estimating Methods in the NIPA Handbook.

Chained-dollar values are calculated by multiplying the quantity index by the current dollar value in the reference year (2012) and then dividing by 100. Percent changes calculated from real quantity indexes and chained-dollar levels are conceptually the same; any differences are due to rounding. Chained-dollar values are not additive because the relative weights for a given period differ from those of the reference year. In tables that display chaineddollar values, a "residual" line shows the difference between the sum of detailed chained-dollar series and its corresponding aggregate.