The savings rate is up, inflation tame, and real spending is weak. Five charts.

Please consider the BEA's Personal Income and Outlays report for April 2025.

Reported Details

Personal income increased $210.1 billion (0.8 percent at a monthly rate) in April

Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—increased $189.4 billion (0.8 percent)

Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $47.8 billion (0.2 percent).

Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—increased $48.6 billion in April. 

Personal saving was $1.12 trillion in April and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 4.9 percent.

Those numbers are interesting but it is real (inflation-adjusted) spending and income that matters.

I have the pertinent charts below, but here are some additional interesting charts from the BEA.

Changes in Monthly Consumer Spending