Friday, January 29, 2010

GDP -- A Look At PCEs

Personal consumption expenditures -- PCEs -- account for about 70% of GDP growth. In addition, PCEs have three sub-parts -- service expenditures (about 66% of PCEs), non-durables (about 22% of PCEs) and durable expenditures (about 12% of expenditures). Here are the charts that show the percentage increase from the preceding quarter in real PCEs and its components from the largest to the smallest. Click on all images for a larger image


The percentage change from the preceding quarter in overall PCE growth is now larger than the three quarters that preceded the recession.


The pace of increase in service expenditures is increasing, as is



The pace of increase in non-durable PCEs.



Durable goods purchases are languishing still. But, remember that these only account for 12% of overall PCEs.