U.S. Personal Spending Cools
People walk through The Shops at Columbus Circle mall in New York.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
U.S. consumer spending rose less than forecast in February even as wage growth improved, according to government data that also showed inflation reached the Federal Reserve’s goal for the first time in almost five years.
The 0.1 percent advance in consumption followed a 0.2 percent gain the prior month, the Commerce Department said Friday. A price gauge based on consumers’ spending habits, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, climbed 2.1 percent from a year earlier, the most since March 2012.