Personal Income & Spending for January have been released. Personal income received by the workforce came in at +0.4%, while spending for durable goods and non-durable goods in the U.S. came in at +0.6%. Bloomberg had estimates at -0.2% for personal income, which would have been consistent with the December reading of-0.2%. Those estimates for spending were expected to be up by 0.4% after a 1% decline in December.
Frankly, this is actually a bit surprising when you consider the data that we have seen since January. Because there is a large time delay, you might have to wait for revisions on this before declaring a real victory. The income component also looks like there were items and adjustments in the reporting.
The other reason this is surprising is because personal saving rose 5.0% in January. That would be the highest reading since 5.5% in March 1995. Again, this is good on the surface, but there is an issue here on whether you trust the data as being actual apples to apples and as to whether or not the data is accurate.
Jon C. Ogg
March 2, 2009
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