Durable Goods Spending Accelerates to Fastest Growth in Two Years

(Positive) Real consumer durable goods spending in January was $1,652 billion real dollars (seasonally adjusted at an annual rate). Compared with one year ago, durable goods spending increased 8.8 percent, which was the fastest rate of growth since January 2015. In three of the last four months, the growth rate has been above 8.5 percent. This was well above the historic average of 5.6 percent. The annual rate of growth accelerated for the fourth straight month. In January, it was 6.2 percent, which was the fastest rate of annual growth since January 2016. Durable goods spending was 14.2 percent of all consumer spending in January.

Real consumer spending was $11,657 billion real dollars (seasonally adjusted at an annual rate). The month-over-month rate of growth in consumer spending was 2.8 percent, which was the slowest since August 2016. The current rate of growth has been below the historic average of 3.3 percent since July 2015. The annual rate of growth remained at 2.7 percent, but the rate of growth has been 2.6 or 2.7 percent since May.  

Below are key spending categories that lead the most important manufacturing new orders and production indices.

Accelerating Growth: durable goods, electronics, food/beverage, medical care, motor vehicles/parts, total consumer

Decelerating Growth: air transportation services, appliances, clothing/footwear, other non-durable goods, pleasure boats