Personal income in April 2011 rose 0.4 %. Nominal personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased 0.4% and real PCE increased 0.1%. Nominal disposable personal income (DPI) rose 0.3% and real DPI was virtually unchanged. The personal saving rate as a percentage of DPI was 4.9% in April.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 1.8% in the first quarter of 2011, according to today’s second estimate. This follows a growth rate of 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The second release of GDP for the first quarter came out this morning, and I want to focus today on two interesting components of this release – first, today’s look at corporate profits for the first time this quarter, and second, the revisions to the first (or “advance”) Q1 GDP estimate released last month. Let’s start with corporate profits.
The March 2011 international trade deficit grew 6.0%, to $48.2 billion. Exports rose by 4.6%, to $172.7 billion. Imports increased 4.9%, to $220.8 billion.
Not surprisingly, rising gasoline prices can affect motor vehicle buying behavior.1 And lately, prices have been rising fast. Based on daily estimates from the American Automobile Association (AAA), regular gasoline prices jumped again in April, following a string of increases that started in July of 2010. Over this same time period, the auto share of total light vehicle sales has been trending up.
