Consumer Spending Grows 2.1% in October 2013

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, real consumer spending in October 2013 was $10,776 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 October. Spending in October 2013 was 2.1% more than it was in October 2012. This is the fastest rate of month-over-month in 2013. This is the third time in five months that the month-ver-month rate of growth has been 2.0% or more. The annual rate of change remained at 1.9% for the third consecutive motnhs. With annual growth in incomes slowly picking up, consumer spending may see its slowly decelerating growth end in the first half of 2014.

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.