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EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 a.m. EST, Friday, January 27, 2023

BEA 23–03

Personal Income and Outlays, December 2022

Personal income increased $49.5 billion (0.2 percent) in December, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 3 and 5). Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $49.2 billion (0.3 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $41.6 billion (0.2 percent).

The PCE price index increased 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent (table 9). Real DPI increased 0.2 percent in December and Real PCE decreased 0.3 percent; goods decreased 0.9 percent and services were unchanged (tables 5 and 7).

	2022
	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
	Percent change from preceding month
Personal income:
Current dollars	0.4	0.4	0.8	0.3	0.2
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars	0.4	0.4	0.9	0.3	0.3
Chained (2012) dollars	0.1	0.0	0.5	0.2	0.2
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE):
Current dollars	0.7	0.6	0.8	-0.1	-0.2
Chained (2012) dollars	0.5	0.3	0.4	-0.2	-0.3
Price indexes:
PCE	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.1	0.1
PCE, excluding food and energy	0.6	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.3
Price indexes:	Percent change from month one year ago
PCE	6.3	6.3	6.1	5.5	5.0
PCE, excluding food and energy	4.9	5.2	5.1	4.7	4.4

The increase in current-dollar personal income in December primarily reflected increases in compensation and proprietors' income (table 3). The increase in compensation reflected increases in private wages and salaries in both services-producing industries and goods-producing industries. The increase in proprietors' income reflected an increase in nonfarm income that was partly offset by a decrease in farm income.

The $41.6 billion decrease in current-dollar PCE in December reflected a decrease of $95.0 billion in spending for goods and a $53.4 billion increase in spending for services (table 3). Within goods, decreases were widespread and led by gasoline as well as motor vehicles and parts. Within services, the largest contributors to the increase were spending for housing, transportation (mainly air transportation), and health care. Detailed information on monthly PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.5U.

Personal outlays decreased $39.2 billion in December (table 3). Personal saving was $637.5 billion in December and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 3.4 percent (table 1).

Prices

From the preceding month, the PCE price index for December increased 0.1 percent (table 9). Prices for goods decreased 0.7 percent and prices for services increased 0.5 percent. Food prices increased 0.2 percent and energy prices decreased 5.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent. Detailed monthly PCE price indexes can be found on Table 2.3.4U.

From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for December increased 5.0 percent (table 11). Prices for goods increased 4.6 percent and prices for services increased 5.2 percent. Food prices increased 11.2 percent and energy prices increased 6.9 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 4.4 percent from one year ago.

Real PCE

In December, real PCE decreased 0.3 percent, reflecting a decrease of 0.9 percent in spending on goods; spending on services was unchanged (table 7). Within goods, a decrease in motor vehicles and parts was partly offset by an increase in gasoline. Within services, increases in health care as well as housing and utilities (mainly natural gas) were offset by decreases in food services and accommodations as well as financial services and insurance. Detailed information on monthly real PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.6U.

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 provided 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	149.4	175.6	0.7	0.8	80.1	56.6	0.4	0.3
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars	135.4	172.9	0.7	0.9	68.6	60.6	0.4	0.3
Chained (2012) dollars	52.8	82.1	0.4	0.5	39.2	33.8	0.3	0.2
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars	151.5	141.1	0.9	0.8	19.8	-19.1	0.1	-0.1
Chained (2012) dollars	68.8	59.7	0.5	0.4	0.9	-29.3	0.0	-0.2

* * *

Next release: February 24, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. EST
Personal Income and Outlays, January 2023

Personal Income and Outlays Release Dates for 2023
Estimate	Release Date
December 2022	January 27, 2023
January 2023	February 24, 2023
February 2023	March 31, 2023
March 2023	April 28, 2023
April 2023	May 26, 2023
May 2023	June 30, 2023
June 2023	July 28, 2023
July 2023	August 31, 2023
August 2023	September 29, 2023
September 2023	October 27, 2023
October 2023	November 30, 2023
November 2023	December 22, 2023

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

Media (BEA)

Connie O'Connell

301-278-9003

Connie.OConnell@bea.gov

Resources

Additional Resources available at www.bea.gov:

The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in these statistics because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified. For more Information about COVID-19 impacts, refer to Federal Recovery Programs and BEA Statistics on our website.
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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, refer to 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 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, refer to 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, refer to the FAQ "Why does BEA publish estimates at annual rates?"

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, refer to 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, refer to 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 chained-dollar values, a "residual" line shows the difference between the sum of detailed chained-dollar series and its corresponding aggregate.