U.S. Consumers Spend Less Than Forecast as Inflation Bites
- Adjusted for rising prices, purchases fall by most since 2009
- Incomes keep increasing, though price gains cut into wallets
Pedestrians walk past the display window of a store in the Harlem neighborhood of New York.
Photographer: Craig Warga/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Consumer spending rose less than projected in January as rising prices pinched Americans’ wallets, leading inflation-adjusted purchases to fall by the most since 2009.
The 0.2 percent advance in spending followed a 0.5 percent increase in the prior month, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 0.3 percent gain. Incomes rose 0.4 percent, though inflation-adjusted disposable incomes had the biggest drop since 2013.