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