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Income up, spending lags
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December 24, 1998: 9:57 a.m. ET
Personal income shows 0.5% gain in November; spending inches up only 0.1%
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Americans earned more in November but they curbed their spending, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
The department said personal income, which includes wages and salaries and other labor income, was up 0.5 percent in November, the largest increase in 9 months, to an annual rate of $7.249 trillion,
Estimates had called for a 0.3 percent increase. In October, personal income was up 0.4 percent.
However, personal spending -- estimated to account for as much as two-thirds of the nation's economic activity -- was only up 0.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $5.924 trillion. The spending gain fell short of estimates of 0.2 percent and was the smallest increase since July, when spending was flat. In October, personal spending rose 0.7 percent.
Analysts noted that unseasonably warm weather has kept shoppers away from stores, while the recent cold snap was a case of too little, too late.
The savings rate was up 0.1 percent, an improvement over October's 0.2 percent drop.
The release of the new data comes a day after the Commerce Department reported the final third-quarter gross domestic product annualized growth rate was 3.7 percent, revised down from the 3.9 percent reported in November.
The price deflator, a measure of inflation, was revised up 1 percent from previously reported figures of up 0.8 percent.
The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond was down 11/32 Thursday morning for a yield of 5.198 percent. 
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