Guess which cultural trait couldn’t be subdued for long… consumption! According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, personal saving dropped 8.5% to $304.0 billion in March, compared with $332.2 billion in February. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 2.7 percent in March, compared with 3.0 percent in February.
Was savings down because wages were down? Nope. In March, personal income increased $36.0 billion, or 0.3 percent, and disposable personal income increased $32.3 billion, or 0.3 percent. Personal consumption expenditures increased $58.6 billion, or 0.6 percent.
So, our “Consumption is Culture” theme is looking strong so long as oil spills and car bombs don’t poop on our party.
In other positive news, the Institute for Supply Management reported a 6-year high in their manufacturing index. Here’s how it breaks out:
No comments:
Post a Comment