U.S. Personal Spending Up 0.8% in October -- Update
December 01 2022 - 9:24AM
Dow Jones News
By Harriet Torry
U.S. households sharply boosted spending in October as the pace
of underlying inflation eased.
Personal spending increased 0.8% from the prior month, the
Commerce Department said Thursday. The department's inflation
gauge--the personal-consumption expenditures price index--rose 6%
in October compared with the same month a year ago, marking an
easing from 6.3% in September.
Core inflation, excluding food and energy, was 5% in October
compared with a year ago, down from 5.2% the prior month.
On a month-over-month basis, overall inflation was up 0.3% in
October and September. The core price index rose 0.2% in October,
an easing from 0.5% the prior month.
"Households are heading into the holiday season in fairly good
shape," said Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.
He said that he expects that "all in all, it's going to be another
solid holiday shopping season, with unemployment low and wage
growth still solid."
October's spending increase was driven by purchases of new
vehicles, as well as by spending on food and housing.
Write to Harriet Torry at harriet.torry@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2022 09:09 ET (14:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.