Personal Income measures the change in the amount of income received by consumers, available for spending or investing on a monthly basis. It is released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis and higher than expected or rising reading are positive for the US Dollar, reflecting higher amounts of income which can have a positive effect on the economic growth measured by the GDP. If the economy is performing well, the expectations are for stable or rising readings of personal income. Also lower readings of inflation are positive for the real Personal Income, which accounts for the inflation, while the nominal readings do not.
The United States Personal Income
The United States Personal Income latest reading for the month of May 2017, was 0.4%, higher than the forecast reading of 0.3%, and also higher than the previous reading of 0.3%. For the first 5 months of 2017, the Personal Income readings show a stable trend, with readings in the range 0.2%-0.4%. Historically the Personal Income has a long-term average reading of 0.54% for the period of years 1959-2017. The all-time high reading was 4.60% in May of 2008, and the all-time low reading was -5.20% in January of 2013. On a 5-year period the reading for the Personal Income after showing extreme volatility in 20012 and 2013, have from 2014 until today a rather stable trend, which is indicative of a stable and improving general economic outlook, whereas a stable trend helps the consumers in their financial planning. The United States Real Personal Income has a recent increase of 0.23% compared with the reading one year ago.
