News Release

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EST, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018
BEA 18-65

Personal Income and Outlays, October 2018

Personal income increased $84.9 billion (0.5 percent) in October according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $81.7 billion (0.5 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $86.9 billion (0.6 percent).

Real DPI increased 0.3 percent in October and Real PCE increased 0.4 percent. The PCE price index increased 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent.

  2018
June July Aug. Sept. Oct.
Percent change from preceding month
Personal income:
   Current dollars 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.5
Disposable personal income:
   Current dollars 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.5
   Chained (2012) dollars 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.3
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE):
   Current dollars 0.4 0.5 0.4 0.2 0.6
   Chained (2012) dollars 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.4
Price indexes:
   PCE 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2
   PCE, excluding food and energy 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.1
 
Price indexes: Percent change from month one year ago
   PCE 2.3 2.3 2.2 2.0 2.0
   PCE, excluding food and energy 2.0 2.0 1.9 1.9 1.8

The increase in personal income in October primarily reflected increases in wages and salaries, proprietors' income, and government social benefits to persons (table 3). Farm proprietors' income increased $11.6 billion in October, which included subsidy payments associated with the Department of Agriculture's Market Facilitation Program.

The $56.5 billion increase in real PCE in October reflected an increase of $14.3 billion in spending for goods and a $41.4 billion increase in spending for services (table 7). Within goods, spending for prescription drugs was the leading contributor to the increase. Within services, the largest contributor to the increase was spending for household electricity and gas. Detailed information on monthly real PCE spending can be found in Table 2.3.6U.

Personal outlays increased $90.8 billion in October (table 3). Personal saving was $967.8 billion in October and the personal saving rate , personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 6.2 percent (table 1).

Updates to Personal Income and Outlays

Estimates have been updated for April through September. The percent change from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2012) dollar DPI and

PCE -- revised and previously published in last month's release -- are shown below.

  Change from preceding month
  August September
  Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised
  (Billions of dollars) (Percent) (Billions of dollars) (Percent)
Personal income:
   Current dollars 67.0 68.0 0.4 0.4 35.7 40.2 0.2 0.2
Disposable personal income:
   Current dollars 55.4 54.6 0.4 0.4 29.1 32.2 0.2 0.2
   Chained (2012) dollars 35.8 37.6 0.2 0.3 9.5 11.8 0.1 0.1
Personal consumption expenditures:
   Current dollars 64.9 52.5 0.5 0.4 53.0 31.5 0.4 0.2
   Chained (2012) dollars 46.1 36.8 0.4 0.3 33.2 12.9 0.3 0.1

QCEW Data Included in the Second Quarter of 2018

This news release includes revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions for government social insurance for April through June 2018 (second quarter). These estimates reflect the incorporation of newly available second-quarter wage and salary tabulations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program.

Personal Income and Outlays Release Dates for 2019

December 2018 -  January 31 April 2019 -  May 31 August 2019 -  September 27
January 2019 -  March 1 May 2019 -  June 28 September 2019 -  October 31
February 2019 -  March 29 June 2019 -  July 30 October 2019 -  November 27
March 2019 -  April 29 July 2019 -  August 30 November 2019 -  December 20

Next release:  December 21, 2018 at 10:00 A.M.