Personal income falls less than expected in February

• February Personal Income and Outlays: -7.1% M/M vs. -7.2% consensus and +10.1% prior (revised from +10.0%).
• Consumer Spending: -1.0% M/M vs. -0.7% consensus and +3.4% prior (revised from +2.4%)
• PCE Price Index: +0.2% vs. +0.3% consensus and +0.3% prior.
• Core PCE Price Index: +0.1% vs. +0.1% consensus and +0.2% prior (revised from +0.3%).
• The decrease in personal income in February was more than accounted for by a decrease in government social benefits to consumers. Most stimulus checks from the December fiscal aid package were paid in January.
• The $149.0B decrease in current dollar personal consumption expenditures in February reflected a decrease of $155.9B in spending for goods and a $7.0B increase in spending for services.
• The increase in services primarily reflected increases in housing and utilities and in health care (mainly hospitals) that were partly offset by a decrease in spending for food services.
• Personal saving was $2.41T in February, resulting in a personal saving rate — personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income — was 13.6%, down from 19.8% in January but little changed from 13.5% in December.
• Core PCE Index increased 1.4% Y/Y in February, down slightly from 1.5% in January.