WASHINGTON: US consumers spent $4.7 billion less in May than the previous month even as incomes rose 0.2 percent, the Commerce Department said, confirming the economy's sluggish turn in the second quarter.
In data that showed Americans are still extremely cautious about opening their wallets, personal incomes grew at the same 0.2 percent pace as the previous month, and disposable personal income grew 0.2 percent as well.
But wages and salaries, the largest component of incomes, were unchanged in the month.
Consumer spending fell just 0.1 percent, reversing the previous month's trend in which spending surpassed income growth and consumers ate into savings.
Prices meanwhile were subdued: the personal consumption expenditure price index, a strong indicator of the inflationary trend, decreased 0.2 percent overall; when volatile food and energy are stripped out, it rose a bare 0.1 percent month-on-month, the same pace as April.
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