Consumer Spending Jumps 0.6 Percent

Fox News ^ | 1st November | Associated Press

[anonposter]

WASHINGTON — Consumers, who substantially slowed down their spending in late summer, roared back to life in September, boosting their purchases by 0.6 percent. The gain in spending reported Monday by the government far outpaced the increase in incomes. The Commerce Department (search) attributed the spending surge to a big jump in purchases of big-ticket products (search) such as cars, reflecting the fact that auto dealers brought back popular sales incentives. The 0.6 percent rise in consumer spending followed an outright decline of 0.1 percent in August, which had followed a 1.2 percent July increase. Consumer spending is closely watched since it accounts for two-thirds of total economic activity. Income growth was a far more moderate 0.2 percent in September following a 0.3 percent rise in August, which had been the biggest income increase since a 0.5 percent rise in May. The government reported on Friday that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, grew at an annual rate of 3.7 percent in the July-September quarter, up from a 3.3 percent rate of GDP growth in the April-June quarter. That rebound reflected a bounce in consumer spending to an annual rate of 4.6 percent, far ahead of the anemic 1.6 percent rate in the second quarter. While an improvement over the second quarter, the 3.7 percent GDP growth in the third quarter was still below economists' predictions that the economy was expanding at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the summer.

[skaterboy]

Its all those yard signs we had to keep replacing

[savedbygrace]

Well, it certainly wasn't all those Dimocrats buying clues.