Consumer Spending
A central location for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) resources
Estimates
NIPA Tables
- Summary Tables
(Annual, Quarterly, and Monthly estimates) - Underlying Detail Tables
(Annual, Quarterly, and Monthly estimates with additional detail - Note: Detailed level estimates are more likely to be either based on judgmental trends or on less reliable source data than estimates at higher level aggregates.)
Other Tables
Methodologies
- NIPA Handbook, Chapter 5: Personal Consumption Expenditures
November 2010 (Updated to reflect the 2010 annual revision) - Updated Summary NIPA Methodologies
November 2010
Articles, Papers, and Presentations
- Research Spotlight: Estimates of Categories of Personal Consumption Expenditures Adjusted for Net Foreign Travel Spending
April 2012 - Trends in Consumer Spending and Personal Saving, 1959–2009
June 2011 - Reconciliation between the Consumer Price Index and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index
September 2007 - Comparing Price Measures – The CPI and the PCE Price Index
March 2006 - Working with Chain-Type Aggregates: A Few Tricks
June 2003
Selected FAQs
PCE Methodologies and Source Data
- What is final consumption expenditures of nonprofit institutions serving households (NPISHs) and how do revisions to this category affect total personal consumption expenditures (PCE)?
- Does the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) publish relative-importance weights used in the derivation of chain-type quantity and price indexes for personal consumption expenditures (PCE)?
- How are personal consumption expenditures (PCE) prices and quantities derived?
- What is the Core PCE price index and why has it been redefined?
- What is the retail control method?
- How is BEA using the Census Bureau's quarterly services survey in its estimates of personal consumption expenditures?
PCE Special Aggregation and Additional Detail Estimates
- What is the "market-based" PCE price index?
- What accounts for the differences in the PCE price index and the Consumer Price Index?
- Are more detailed estimates available for Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) beyond what is presented in the underlying detail Table 2.4.5U?
- What is the I-O commodity composition of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) PCE categories?
Miscellaneous PCE Related Questions
- How are the Federal Rebates for Energy Star Appliances program (popularly called “Cash for Appliances”) reflected in the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs)?
- How is the federal Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 (i.e., the CARS program) reflected in the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs)?
- How do I use chain-type indexes (or chained-dollar) measures of economic activity, such as real GDP?
- How is the new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan reflected in the NIPAs?
- How do I use percent changes from month (or quarter) one year ago?
- How do I use quarter-to-quarter (or month-to-month) percent changes?
Contacts
- Consumer Spending, Goods | Harvey Davis, Jr
- Consumer Spending, Services | Jason Chute
- Consumer Spending, Prices | Kyle Brown
- Motor Vehicle Output | Everette Johnson
Major Data Sources
Census Bureau
- Services Annual Survey
- Quarterly Services Survey
- Annual Retail Trade Survey
- Advance Monthly Retail Sales Survey
- Economic Census
