Consumer Spending Grows 2.0% in June 2013

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, real consumer spending in June 2013 was $10,702 billion real dollars (seasonally adjusted at an annual rate). As is the case almost every month, real consumer spending hit a new all-time high in June. Spending in June 2013 was 2.0% more than it was in June 2012. The month-over-month rate of growth has accelerated the last two months but it is still below the growth rate from September 2010 to December 2012. The annual rate of change has decelerated slowly since October 2011. Given that incomes continue to decelerate it is likely that spending will continue to decelerate throughout the remainder of 2013.

Real consumer spending (or its sub-components such as medical care spending) is an important leading for a number of durable goods end markets: construction materials; custom processors; food and beverage processing; forming and fabricating (non-auto); hardware; HVAC; industrial motors, hydraulics and mechanical components; machinery and equipment manufacturing; medical; metalcutting job shops; oil, gas field and mining machinery; power generation; primary metals; and printing.