Consumer Spending Contribution to US GDP Growth

## What this measures

Percentage points of annualized real GDP growth that came from personal consumption expenditures: household spending on goods and services. The contributions of all components add up, apart from rounding, to the headline growth rate.

## Why it matters

Consumer spending is about two thirds of the US economy, so it usually supplies most of a quarter's growth. When it weakens, the rest of the economy rarely makes up the difference for long.

## How to read it

Read it beside the headline growth rate: the share of growth coming from consumers tells you whether the economy is being carried by households or by investment, government or trade. Quarter-to-quarter swings are large; look at several quarters together.

## What it does not say

It does not say whether spending was paid for out of income, savings or borrowing. It is an estimate that BEA revises, sometimes by tenths of a point.

## Source

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts Table 1.1.2 (Contributions to Percent Change in Real Gross Domestic Product), read through FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (series DPCERY2Q224SBEA). BEA data are in the public domain. Palanor syncs the series nightly; each quarter's figure is revised with BEA's second and third estimates and annual updates, and the stored history takes those revisions.