-
Spending stalls as US consumers feel more pressure
Real consumer spending fell 0.3% month-on-month in May versus expectations of a 0.1% gain. Following big downward revisions to first quarter consumer spending growth yesterday, this is concerning. The MoM changes so far this year have been: January -0.6%, February -0.1%, March +0.7%, April +0.1% and May -0.3%, so the only decent report was March when people went and bought cars to get ahead of the 25% tariff hike. That means spending in real terms has fallen 0.2% since the start of the year. Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and if that is no longer contributing to growth we have got a problem. In terms of the ... (full story)