Americans are making more and spending more, according to a May Personal Income and Outlays report (link opens as PDF) released today by the Commerce Department.
Personal income increased $69.4 billion month-over-month (0.5%) for May, beating analyst estimates of a 0.2% gain.
For the same period, personal spending bumped up $29 billion (0.3%) to make up for an equal loss in April. And while income results pleasantly surprised analysts, their 0.4% spending prediction proved slightly overoptimistic. In a potential sign of longer-term economic optimism, durable goods spending increased 0.9% for the largest gain since December 2012.
Despite this month's improvements, 12-month trends don't paint a clear picture. Personal income is down 4.7% compared to May 2012, while personal spending has bumped up 3.6%.
The Commerce Department also reduced its estimates for spending in January, February, and April.
-- Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
