National

BEA estimates personal saving as the difference between current-dollar disposable personal income and personal outlays in the NIPAs. Revisions to either of these components will impact personal saving and the personal saving rate (which is derived as personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income).

An implicit price deflator is the ratio of the current-dollar value of a series, such as gross domestic product (GDP), to its corresponding chained-dollar value, multiplied by 100.

BEA publishes implicit price deflators for GDP, related components, and gross national product (GNP) in NIPA table 1.1.9.

BEA uses data from the latest month’s BLS payroll survey to estimate wages and salaries, the largest component of personal income. These early survey-based estimates are later revised to reflect more accurate administrative wage-and-salary data received 4½ months after the end of the reference quarter. Timely source data are also available for some other components of personal income, such as social security benefits.

Major changes in definitions and presentations are as follows:

The "core" PCE price index is defined as personal consumption expenditures (PCE) prices excluding food and energy prices. The core PCE price index measures the prices paid by consumers for goods and services without the volatility caused by movements in food and energy prices to reveal underlying inflation trends.

The estimates of personal consumption expenditures (PCE) for most goods, the so-called "PCE control group," are prepared using the "retail control method." This method ensures that the PCE control group has the same growth rate as the "retail control" group, a measure based on the total sales for most kinds of business from the Census Bureau's monthly and annual retail trade surveys.

The federal CARS program (popularly called "cash for clunkers"), which began in July 2009 and ended on August 24, 2009, provides a credit of $3,500 or $4,500 for customers who purchase a qualifying new, more fuel efficient auto or light truck from a participating dealer when they trade in a qualifying less fuel efficient auto or light truck. The credit is applied by the dealer to the customer's purchase, after which the dealer is reimbursed by the federal government. The impact of this program is reflected in several components of the NIPAs.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides a reduction in the health insurance premiums for coverage provided under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) to workers who are involuntarily terminated. In particular, workers who are involuntarily terminated during the period from September 1, 2008, to December 31, 2009, are eligible and pay only 35 percent of the full COBRA premiums for health insurance coverage for themselves and their families for up to 9 months.

The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010 has led to substantial donations of goods, services, and financial assets by U.S. and foreign organizations and individuals. The U.S. donations will be reflected in the monthly statistics for U.S. international trade in goods and services, beginning with the statistics for January, and in the quarterly statistics for the U.S. international transactions accounts (ITAs), beginning with the statistics for the first quarter.

BEA does not publish a series for taxes as a percent of personal income, but BEA's personal income and outlays data (NIPA Table 2.1) include data on what the Bureau calls current taxes, and as a percentage of personal income, current taxes were 9.6 percent in 2009. Personal current taxes are mainly income taxes, personal property taxes, and payments for personal licenses and exclude social security contributions, residential property taxes, and sales taxes.