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Personal Income and Outlays, April 2012

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012BEA 12-21

James Rankin: (202) 606-5301 (Personal Income) piniwd@bea.gov

Harvey Davis: (202) 606-5302 (Personal Consumption Expenditures) pce@bea.gov

* See the navigation bar at the right side of the news release text for links to data tables, contact personnel and their telephone numbers, and supplementary materials.

PERSONAL INCOME AND OUTLAYS: APRIL 2012
Personal income increased $31.7 billion, or 0.2 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI)
increased $22.0 billion, or 0.2 percent, in April, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $31.8 billion, or 0.3 percent. In March,
personal income increased $52.2 billion, or 0.4 percent, DPI increased $45.9 billion, or 0.4 percent,
and PCE increased $25.4 billion, or 0.2 percent, based on revised estimates.

Real disposable income increased 0.2 percent in April, the same increase as in March. Real
PCE increased 0.3 percent in April, compared with an increase of less than 0.1 percent in March.

2011 2012
Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr.
(Percent change from preceding month)
Personal income, current dollars 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.2
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.2
Chained (2005) dollars 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.2
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars 0.2 0.4 0.9 0.2 0.3
Chained (2005) dollars 0.1 0.2 0.6 0.0 0.3

This news release presents revised estimates of wages and salaries, personal taxes, and contributions for
government social insurance for October through December 2011 (fourth quarter). These estimates reflect
the incorporation of newly available fourth-quarter wage and salary tabulations from the quarterly census
of employment and wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Wages and salaries

Private wage and salary disbursements increased $12.9 billion in April, compared with an increase of
$17.6 billion in March. Goods-producing industries’ payrolls increased $7.2 billion, compared with an increase
of $0.2 billion; manufacturing payrolls increased $4.3 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $0.2 billion.
Services-producing industries’ payrolls increased $5.7 billion, compared with an increase of $17.4 billion.
Government wage and salary disbursements were unchanged in April; government wages and salaries
increased $0.8 billion in March.

Other personal income

Supplements to wages and salaries increased $2.6 billion in April, compared with an increase of $2.5 billion in March.

Proprietors’ income increased $4.0 billion in April, compared with an increase of $5.1 billion in March. Farm
proprietors’ income increased $0.9 billion, compared with an increase of $0.2 billion. Nonfarm proprietors’ income
increased $3.0 billion, compared with an increase of $4.9 billion.

Rental income of persons increased $4.3 billion in April, compared with an increase of $4.9 billion in March.
Personal income receipts on assets (personal interest income plus personal dividend income) increased $8.7 billion,
compared with an increase of $12.1 billion.

Personal current transfer receipts increased $1.1 billion in April, compared with an increase of $11.6 billion
in March. Within current transfer receipts, government social benefits to persons for social security
decreased $1.1 billion, in contrast to an increase of $6.6 billion.

Contributions for government social insurance — a subtraction in calculating personal income — increased $1.9 billion
in April, compared with an increase of $2.3 billion in March.

Personal current taxes and disposable personal income

Personal current taxes increased $9.7 billion in April, compared with an increase of $6.3 billion in March.
Disposable personal income (DPI) — personal income less personal current taxes — increased $22.0 billion, or
0.2 percent, in April, compared with an increase of $45.9 billion, or 0.4 percent in March.

Personal outlays and personal saving

Personal outlays — PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments — increased $30.3 billion
in April, compared with an increase of $29.5 billion in March. PCE increased $31.8 billion, compared with an increase
of $25.4 billion.

Personal saving — DPI less personal outlays — was $403.4 billion in April, compared with $411.7 billion in March.
The personal saving rate — personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income — was 3.4 percent in April,
compared with 3.5 percent in March. For a comparison of personal saving in BEA’s national income and product
accounts with personal saving in the Federal Reserve Board’s flow of funds accounts and data on changes in net worth, go to

http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp.

Real DPI, real PCE and price index

Real DPI — DPI adjusted to remove price changes — increased 0.2 percent in April, the same increase as in March.

Real PCE — PCE adjusted to remove price changes — increased 0.3 percent in April, compared with an increase of less
than 0.1 percent in March. Purchases of durable goods increased 0.8 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 1.2 percent.
Purchases of nondurable goods increased 0.2 percent, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent. Purchases of services
increased 0.2 percent, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent.

PCE price index — The price index for PCE increased less than 0.1 percent in April, compared with an increase of 0.2
percent in March. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.1 percent, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent.

Revisions

Estimates for personal income and DPI have been revised for October through March; estimates for PCE have been
revised for January through March. Changes in personal income, current-dollar and chained (2005) dollar DPI,
and current-dollar and chained (2005) dollar PCE for February and March — revised and as published in last
month’s release — are shown below.

Estimates of wages and salaries were revised from October through March. The revision to fourth-quarter
wages and salaries reflect the incorporation of the most recently available BLS tabulations of the
fourth-quarter wages and salaries from the quarterly census of employment and wages. Revised estimates
for January, February, and March reflect extrapolations from the revised fourth-quarter level of wages.
In addition, revisions to February and March reflect revised BLS employment, hours, and earnings data for those months.

Change from preceding month
February March
Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised Previous Revised
(Billions of dollars) (Percent) (Billions of dollars) (Percent)
Personal Income:
Current dollars 39.6 44.5 0.3 0.3 50.3 52.2 0.4 0.4
Disposable personal income:
Current dollars 29.4 36.0 0.2 0.3 42.5 45.9 0.4 0.4
Chained (2005) dollars -7.5 -1.7 -0.1 0.0 15.5 19.2 0.2 0.2
Personal consumption expenditures:
Current dollars 93.7 100.9 0.9 0.9 29.6 25.4 0.3 0.2
Chained (2005) dollars 50.5 56.8 0.5 0.6 5.8 2.6 0.1 0.0

Annual Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts

As part of the annual revision of the national income and product accounts (NIPAs), revised estimates of personal income and
outlays covering January 2009 through May 2012 will be released along with estimates for June 2012 on July 31.
The August Survey of Current Business will contain an article that describes the annual revision in detail.

BEA’s national, international, regional, and industry estimates; the Survey of Current Business; and BEA news releases are
available without charge on BEA’s Web site at www.bea.gov. By visiting the site, you can also subscribe to receive
free e-mail summaries of BEA releases and announcements.

* * *

Next release – June 29, 2012 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for Personal Income and Outlays for May
________________________
NOTE. — Monthly estimates are expressed at seasonally adjusted annual rates, unless otherwise specified.
Month-to-month dollar changes are differences between these published estimates. Month-to-month percent changes are
calculated from unrounded data and are not annualized. “Real” estimates are in chained (2005) dollars.

This news release is available on BEA’s Web site at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/rels.htm. Search:
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Contacts
James Rankin (Personal Income)
(202) 606-5301
piniwd@bea.gov
Harvey Davis (Personal Consumption Expenditures)
(202) 606-5302
pce@bea.gov
Ralph Stewart (News Media)
(202) 606-2649
Jeannine Aversa (News Media)
(202) 606-2649
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