News Release
Personal Income and Outlays, March 2021
Personal income increased $4.21 trillion (21.1 percent) in March according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 3 and 5). Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $4.18 trillion (23.6 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $616.0 billion (4.2 percent).
Real DPI increased 23.0 percent in March and Real PCE increased 3.6 percent; goods increased 7.3 percent and services increased 1.7 percent (tables 5 and 7). The PCE price index increased 0.5 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.4 percent (table 9).
| 2020 | 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. | Dec. | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | |
| Percent change from preceding month | |||||
| Personal income: | |||||
| Current dollars | -1.2 | 0.5 | 10.3 | -7.0 | 21.1 |
| Disposable personal income: | |||||
| Current dollars | -1.4 | 0.6 | 11.6 | -7.9 | 23.6 |
| Chained (2012) dollars | -1.4 | 0.2 | 11.3 | -8.1 | 23.0 |
| Personal consumption expenditures (PCE): | |||||
| Current dollars | -0.6 | -0.6 | 3.4 | -1.0 | 4.2 |
| Chained (2012) dollars | -0.6 | -0.9 | 3.1 | -1.2 | 3.6 |
| Price indexes: | |||||
| PCE | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| PCE, excluding food and energy | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Price indexes: | Percent change from month one year ago | ||||
| PCE | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 2.3 |
| PCE, excluding food and energy | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.8 |
The increase in personal income in March largely reflected an increase in government social benefits (table 3). Within government social benefits, “other” social benefits increased. The American Rescue Plan Act established an additional round of direct economic impact payments to households.
The $616.0 billion increase in current dollar PCE in March reflected an increase of $403.0 billion in spending for goods and a $213.1 billion increase in spending for services (table 3). Within goods, both nondurable (led by “other” nondurable goods, which includes recreational items like games, toys, and hobbies) and durable goods (led by motor vehicles and parts) contributed to the increase. Within services, the largest contributor to the increase was spending for food services and accommodations. Detailed information on monthly PCE spending can be found on Table 2.3.5U.
Personal outlays increased $616.4 billion in March (table 3). Personal saving was $6.04 trillion in March and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 27.6 percent (table 1).
Updates to Personal Income and Outlays
Estimates have been updated for January and February. Revised and previously published changes from the preceding month for current-dollar personal income, and for current-dollar and chained (2012) dollar DPI and PCE, are shown below.
| Change from preceding month | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | February | |||||||
| Previous | Revised | Previous | Revised | Previous | Revised | Previous | Revised | |
| (Billions of dollars) | (Percent) | (Billions of dollars) | (Percent) | |||||
| Personal income: | ||||||||
| Current dollars | 1,970.9 | 2,007.0 | 10.1 | 10.3 | -1,516.6 | -1,503.3 | -7.1 | -7.0 |
| Disposable personal income: | ||||||||
| Current dollars | 1,971.4 | 2,001.9 | 11.4 | 11.6 | -1,532.3 | -1,519.9 | -8.0 | -7.9 |
| Chained (2012) dollars | 1,701.9 | 1,736.2 | 11.1 | 11.3 | -1,398.5 | -1,389.0 | -8.2 | -8.1 |
| Personal consumption expenditures: | ||||||||
| Current dollars | 487.9 | 485.2 | 3.4 | 3.4 | -149.0 | -150.8 | -1.0 | -1.0 |
| Chained (2012) dollars | 391.2 | 394.3 | 3.0 | 3.1 | -162.7 | -165.1 | -1.2 | -1.2 |
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Next release: May 28, 2021 at 8:30 A.M. EDT
Personal Income and Outlays, April 2021
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