Someone, please, make up my mind.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Consumer spending rebounded in January, snapping six months of declines, and incomes rose unexpectedly, “boosted by salary increases for government employees“, a government report showed on Monday.
“The [Commerce] department attributed the rise in incomes to pay raises for federal civilian and military employees, as well as cost-of-living adjustments to several government transfer payments programs.”
“The income numbers were certainly higher than expected, but a lot of that was the Social Security payment adjustment,” said Scott Brown, chief economist, Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida.
“There was a big increase in the savings rate to 5 percent. It is good that people save but it is not good that everybody saves at the same time. That makes the current downturn more severe and long lasting.”