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Economy in Brief
U.S. Leading Indicators Rebounded in March
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators rebounded in March, rising 1.3% m/m (+7.9% y/y)...
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Increases in March
The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index increased to 1.71 during March...
Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity Strengthens in April
The Kansas City Fed reported that its manufacturing sector business activity index rose to a record 31 in April...
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Fall Again to a New Pandemic-Period Low
Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased again in the week ending April 17, reaching 547,000...
U.K. CBI Optimism Speaks Volumes
The U.K. CBI survey saw its order component backtrack in April...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Charles Steindel October 11, 2018
Last Thursday BEA released its estimates of 2017 state-level consumer spending. These figures—only available at an annual frequency—are the only estimates of any state-level GDP expenditure category.
In the release BEA highlights 2016-2017 growth in spending. Not surprisingly, states which saw the most rapid growth in employment (and GDP) saw the strongest gains in consumer spending: these were concentrated in the western half of the nation (Idaho was first, with a 6.9% increase—North Dakota was last, with a 2.0% gain). Data on per capita spending is also featured. As one would expect, per capita spending is very closely linked to per capita income (Massachusetts first, Mississippi last).
The state consumption numbers are clearly not very timely or revelatory about current developments, with the data for 2017 as a whole being released in late 2018. There may also be questions raised about the accuracy of the data. 2017 was an economic census year, and for that reason, the data for that year may be more reliable than those for 2016. The numbers for intercensus years are largely derived by allocating national spending totals across states by employee compensation in the industries providing consumer goods and services. This latter is a strong assumption. For that reason, one might be cautious in drawing too much inference from the 2016-2017 growth figures.