Real Personal Consumption Expenditures (Billions)

Description

Real personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is the primary measure of consumer spending on goods and services in the U.S. economy. This chart shows the real (or inflation-adjusted) level of expenditures, broken down by durable goods, nondurable goods, and services. Durable goods have an average useful life of at least 3 years (e.g. motor vehicles) while nondurable goods have an average useful life of less than 3 years (e.g. food). Services are commodities that cannot be stored or inventoried and are consumed at the time of purchase (e.g., dining out). Services have been hit especially hard during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reference

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Real Personal Consumption Expenditures [PCEC96], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis