Oct. 27 (UPI) — The personal consumption expenditures price index, a key inflation gauge used by the Federal Reserve, rose 0.4% in September, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday.
The price increases were driven by motor vehicles and international travel services.
Personal consumption expenditures increased by $138.7 billion (0.7%) in September. Excluding food and energy, the PCE inflation index was up 0.3%.
“From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for September increased 3.4 percent,” the BEA said in a statement. “Prices for goods increased 0.9 percent and prices for services increased 4.7 percent. Food prices increased 2.7 percent and energy prices decreased by less than 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 3.7 percent from one year ago.”
Broken down by services and goods, PCE consumer spending on services was up by $96.2 billion while goods spending was up $42.5 billion.
“Within goods, the largest contributors to the increase were motor vehicles and parts (both new and used vehicles) and other nondurable goods (led by prescription drugs),” the BEA said. “Within services, the largest contributor to the increase was other services (led by international travel).”
Personal income was up by $77.8 billion, an increase of 0.3% at a monthly rate. Disposable personal income was up by $56.1 billion, a bump of 0.3%.
Real disposable income based on chained 2017 dollars, decreased by 0.1% in September.
