EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, Thursday, August 31, 2017
BEA 17—43
* See the navigation bar at the right side of the news release text for links to data tables,
contact personnel and their telephone numbers, and supplementary materials.
| Technical: | James Rankin | (301) 278-9087 | (Personal Income) | piniwd@bea.gov |
| Harvey Davis | (301) 278-9086 | (PCE) | pce@bea.gov | |
| Media: | Jeannine Aversa | (301) 278-9003 | Jeannine.Aversa@bea.gov |
Personal Income and Outlays, July 2017
Personal income increased $65.6 billion (0.4 percent) in July according to estimates released today by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $39.6 billion (0.3 percent) and
personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $44.7 billion (0.3 percent).
Real DPI increased 0.2 percent in July and Real PCE increased 0.2 percent. The PCE price index increased
0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent.
2017
Mar. Apr. May June July
Percent change from preceding month
Personal income:
Current dollars 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.4
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.3
Chained (2009) dollars 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.2
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE):
Current dollars 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.3
Chained (2009) dollars 0.7 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.2
Price indexes:
PCE -0.2 0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1
PCE, excluding food and energy -0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1
Price indexes: Percent change from month one year ago
PCE 1.8 1.7 1.5 1.4 1.4
PCE, excluding food and energy 1.6 1.6 1.5 1.5 1.4
The increase in personal income in July primarily reflected increases in wages and salaries and personal
income receipts on assets (table 3).
The $29.3 billion increase in real PCE in July reflected an increase of $18.7 billion in spending for
goods and an $11.8 billion increase in spending for services (table 7). Within goods, furnishings and
durable household equipment was the leading contributor to the increase. Within services, the largest
contributor to the increase was spending for food services and accommodations. Detailed information on
monthly real PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.6U.
Personal outlays increased $45.2 billion in July (table 3). Personal saving was $510.2 billion in July
and the personal saving rate, personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 3.5 percent (table 1).
Updates
Estimates have been updated for January through June. The change from the preceding month for current-dollar
personal income and for current-dollar and chained (2009) dollar DPI and PCE -- revised and previously
published -- are shown below for May and June.
Change from preceding month
May June
Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised
(Billions of dollars) (Percent) (Billions of dollars) (Percent)
Personal income:
Current dollars 53.2 51.8 0.3 0.3 -3.5 5.2 0.0 0.0
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 61.4 60.6 0.4 0.4 -4.2 3.0 0.0 0.0
Chained (2009) dollars 58.7 60.6 0.5 0.5 -6.7 -2.7 -0.1 0.0
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars 20.1 27.4 0.2 0.2 8.1 31.3 0.1 0.2
Chained (2009) dollars 21.5 30.5 0.2 0.3 4.5 23.0 0.0 0.2
BOX.____________________________
QCEW Data Included in the First Quarter of 2017
This news release includes revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions for government
social insurance for January through March 2017 (first quarter). These estimates reflect the incorporation of the most
recently available first-quarter wage and salary tabulations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of
Employment and Wages (QCEW) program.
________________________________
Next release: September 29, 2017 at 8:30 A.M. EDT
Personal Income and Outlays: August 2017
Additional Information
Resources
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• Historical time series for these estimates can be accessed in BEA’s Interactive Data Application.
• Access BEA data by registering for BEA’s Data Application Programming Interface (API).
• For more on BEA’s statistics, see our monthly online journal, the Survey of Current Business.
• BEA's news release schedule
• NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts
Definitions
Personal income is the income received by, or on behalf of, all persons from all sources: from
participation as laborers in production, from owning a home or business, from the ownership of
financial assets, and from government and business in the form of transfers. It includes income from
domestic sources as well as the rest of world. It does not include realized or unrealized capital gains or
losses.
Disposable personal income is the income available to persons for spending or saving. It is equal to
personal income less personal current taxes.
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is the value of the goods and services purchased by, or on the
behalf of, “persons” who reside in the United States.
Personal outlays is the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments.
Personal saving is personal income less personal outlays and personal current taxes.
The personal saving rate is personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income.
Current-dollar estimates are valued in the prices of the period when the transactions occurred—that is,
at “market value.” Also referred to as “nominal estimates” or as “current-price estimates.”
Real values are inflation-adjusted estimates—that is, estimates that exclude the effects of price changes.
For more definitions, see the Glossary: National Income and Product Accounts.
Statistical conventions
Annual rates. Monthly and quarterly values are expressed at seasonally-adjusted annual rates (SAAR).
Dollar changes are calculated as the difference between these SAAR values. For detail, see the FAQ
“Why does BEA publish estimates at annual rates?”
Month-to-month percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are not annualized.
Quarter-to-quarter percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are displayed at annual
rates. For detail, see the FAQ “How is average annual growth calculated?”
Quantities and prices. Quantities, or “real” volume measures, and prices are expressed as index
numbers with a specified reference year equal to 100 (currently 2009). Quantity and price indexes are
calculated using a Fisher-chained weighted formula that incorporates weights from two adjacent
periods (quarters for quarterly data and annuals for annual data). “Real” dollar series are calculated by
multiplying the published quantity index by the current dollar value in the reference year (2009) and
then dividing by 100. Percent changes calculated from real quantity indexes and chained-dollar levels
are conceptually the same; any differences are due to rounding.
Chained-dollar values are not additive because the relative weights for a given period differ from those
of the reference year.
