In January, personal income edged down 0.1% (+4.3% year-on-year) after a 1.0% gain in December. November's gain was revised slightly higher to 0.3% from 0.2%. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected gains of 0.3% in January and 0.4% in December. Wages & salaries grew 0.3% (4.2% y/y) after a 0.5% rise. Benefits were up 0.3% (3.0% y/y) in January, while transfers jumped 2.6% (6.4% y/y), driven by a 3.1% cost-of-living related spurt in social security payments (6.7% y/y). These gains were more than offset by the 3.4% drop in receipts from assets (+2.8% y/y), some of which was related to a special dividend payment made by VMware Incorporated in December. In addition, proprietors' income slumped 1.6% (+5.3% y/y).

Disposable personal income declined 0.2% (+4.4% y/y) in January following a 1.1% increase. When adjusted for inflation, real disposable income rose 1.0% (3.9% y/y) in December.

Personal consumption expenditures fell a greater than expected 0.5% in December. A 0.1% decline had been anticipated by the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Inflation-adjusted consumption dropped 0.6% (+2.2% y/y) as both goods and services spending decreased 1.4% (+2.4% y/y) and 0.2% (+2.1% y/y) respectively. Spending on goods was weak across the board, while the decline in services reflected a 1.0% drop in housing related expenditures (+0.6% y/y) as well as eating out and hotel stays (-0.9%; +2.5% y/y).

The personal savings rate rebounded to 7.6% in December's from November's five-and-a-half year low of 6.1%. The level of personal savings jumped 28.2% y/y, the fastest growth since early 2014.

The personal consumption chain price index edged up 0.1% (1.7% y/y) in December after an unchanged reading in November (was 0.1%). The index excluding food & energy also rose 0.2% (1.9% y/y) for a second month.

The personal income and consumption figures are available in Haver's USECON database with detail in the USNA database. The Action Economics figures are in the AS1REPNA database.