the stance of monetary policy as “restrictive.”The Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Thursday that, the biggest jump in spending since January and the second consecutive month of accelerating spending increases. Consumers are obviously not feeling very restricted from opening their wallets to pay for goods and services.
Spending on goods, which had declined in three out of the first six months of the year, rose 0.7 percent. That’sand also the second monthly increase in a row. This undermines the idea that after indulging in the pandemic spending spree, households were dramatically cutting back on spending on goods.. Within durable goods, spending on furniture and similar items rose by 0.7 percent. Spending on—supposedly a category thoroughly exhausted by pulled-forward spending and inflated prices—jumped 1.
. Americans spent more in July than June on televisions, audio equipment, photographic equipment, personal computers, software, and sporting goods, including bicycles. We even spent more on musical instruments and books for recreational reading. We even spent 2.3 percent more on newspapers and magazines.
Keep in mind that these figures are seasonally adjusted. So, the two percent surge in literature spending is not just because we tend to pick up books to browse on the beach or bikes for the kids to ride in the summer.The personal consumption expenditure price index rose 0.2 percent in July compared with June, matching the prior month’s gain. So, people were not just spending more on books, bikes, couches, and appliances—they were buying more of them..
. Headline PCE inflation rose 0.213 percent compared with June’s 0.205 percent. Core PCE prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.216 percent compared with 0.213 percent in June.headline inflation rate of 2.6 percentOn a year-over-year basis, there was a notable climb in inflation. The PCE price index was up 3.3 percent, compared with three percent in the prior report. So, the previous two-month trend of declining year-over-year inflation has not continued.
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