This morning, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis published its most recent report on personal consumption expenditures (PCE).
The agency said that the August personal spending progressed by 0.4% monthly versus the 0.2% anticipated showing that the consumer remains resilient notwithstanding the sky-high inflation and slowing economic activity, partly supported by the solid labor market.
Even before the end of the third quarter, the massive spending speculates that Americans are not reducing consumption despite the Fed’s aggressive tightening measures aimed at reducing demand.
Elsewhere, the PCE Price Index, which measures costs that people in the U.S. pay for various items, increased 0.3% monthly and 6.2% yearly, amounting to two-tenths of a percent above estimation.
Meanwhile, the primary PCE indicator, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, which excludes food and energy used to make monetary policy decisions, hiked 0.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis, pushing the yearly reading to 4.9% from 4.7% in July. Analysts polled by Bloomberg were expecting a reading of 4.7% yearly.