UPDATE - Americans' personal income growth, spending slow down in April

UPDATES WITH ADDITIONAL FIGURES

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Americans' personal income growth and personal spending both slowed down in April, according to official figures released Friday.

Personal income increased $65.3 billion, or 0.3%, at a monthly rate in April, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

While the figure came in line with the market estimates, it is a slowdown from the 0.5% monthly increase recorded in March.

"The increase in current-dollar personal income in April primarily reflected increases in compensation, personal income receipts on assets, and government social benefits to persons," the agency said in a statement.

Disposable personal income, which is personal income minus personal current taxes, increased $40.2 billion in April, or 0.2%, from the previous month when it rose 0.5%.

Personal spending, also referred to as personal consumption expenditures (PCE), increased $39.1 billion, or 0.2%, in April from the month before.

That figure showed a significant decline from the 0.7% monthly gain in March, while it managed to come in slightly lower than the market expectations of a 0.3% gain.

"The $39.1 billion increase in current-dollar PCE in April reflected an increase of $49.1 billion in spending for services that was partly offset by a $10.0 billion decrease in spending for goods," said the agency.

Within services, the largest contributors to the increase were housing and utilities, health care, financial services, and insurance. These increases, however, were partly offset by a decline in transportation services, it said.

Within goods, the biggest contributors to their decline were spending for recreational goods and vehicles and other non-durable goods, it added.

Personal income figure for March, meanwhile, was revised upward to $126.2 billion from $122 billion, according to the agency's figures.

Disposable personal income for March, on the other hand, saw a downward revision to $100.4 billion from $104 billion. Personal consumption expenditures for March was also revised down to $143.1 billion from 160.9.

Personal outlays increased $42.8 billion in April, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. The figure reflects the sum of personal consumption expenditures, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments.

Personal saving, meanwhile, came in at $744.5 billion last month, said the agency.

The personal saving rate, which shows personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, stood at 3.6% in April.