The price index measuring Personal Consumption Expenditures rose by 6.3% year over year in April. It was a decrease from March, when prices rose by 6.6%, and the first slowing of price hikes this year.
Stripping out more volatile items like food and energy, core PCE inflation, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of consumer prices, rose by 4.9% over the same period, down from 5.2% recorded in March.
Energy prices rose 30.4% over the year, while food prices climbed 10%.
Between March and April, prices increased by 0.2% — a sharp slowing from the 0.9% jump in the month before. Core prices rose by 0.3%, flat from the prior report.
While costs rose, Americans kept reaching into their pockets: Consumer spending rose by 0.9%, even though that was a slowdown from March.
But as American kept spending more, they also saved less. The rate of savings as a percentage of disposable income fell to 4.4%, the lowest savings rate since September 2008.
Incomes rose by 0.4%, also slightly less than in the prior month, while after tax income rose by 0.3%.
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