Thursday, April 09, 2026

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis News: Personal Income and Outlays, February 2026

 

US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis

BEA News: Personal Income and Outlays, February 2026

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has issued the following news release today:

https://www.bea.gov/system/files/pi0226chart1.png 

Personal income decreased $18.2 billion (0.1 percent at a monthly rate) in February, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—decreased $18.3 billion (0.1 percent), and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $103.2 billion (0.5 percent). Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—increased $106.5 billion in February. Personal saving was $931.5 billion in February, and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of DPI—was 4.0 percent.

The full text of the release can be found at www.bea.gov/news/2026/personal-income-and-outlays-february-2026.


NEW RELEASE
EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 a.m. EDT, Thursday, April 9, 2026
BEA 26—20

Personal Income and Outlays, February 2026

Personal income decreased $18.2 billion (0.1 percent at a monthly rate) in February, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—decreased $18.3 billion (0.1 percent), and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $103.2 billion (0.5 percent).

This report for February 2026, originally scheduled for March 27, 2026, was rescheduled due to the October–November 2025 government shutdown.

Disposable Personal Income, Outlays, and Saving

Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—increased $106.5 billion in February. Personal saving was $931.5 billion in February, and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of DPI—was 4.0 percent.

The decrease in current-dollar personal income in February primarily reflected decreases in personal dividend income and personal current transfer receipts.

The $103.2 billion increase in current-dollar PCE in February reflected increases of $58.7 billion in spending on goods and $44.5 billion in spending on services.

Changes in Monthly Consumer Spending February 2026

Real PCE increased $17.3 billion (0.1 percent at a monthly rate) in February.

From the preceding month, the PCE price index for February increased 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index also increased 0.4 percent.

From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for February increased 2.8 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 3.0 percent from one year ago.

Percent Change in PCE Price Indexes from Month One Year Ago
Personal Income and Related Measures
[Percent change from preceding month]
 JanuaryFebruary
Current-dollar personal income0.4-0.1
Current-dollar DPI0.9-0.1
Real DPI0.6-0.5
Current-dollar PCE0.30.5
Real PCE0.00.1
PCE price index0.30.4
PCE price index, excluding food and energy0.40.4

 

For definitions, statistical conventions, information on updates to personal income and outlays (PIO), links to related tables, and more, visit "Additional Information."
Improvements to the PIO News Release
Today's personal income and outlays release includes improvements that reflect BEA’s ongoing modernization and streamlining of its news releases. The news release text now includes links to BEA’s online Interactive Data Tables to point users directly to the most complete data. To reduce duplication, news release tables in PDF and Excel format are no longer provided.

Next release: April 30, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. EDT
Personal Income and Outlays, March 2026


Technical Notes

Changes in personal income and outlays for February

The February decrease in personal income primarily reflected decreases in personal dividend income and personal current transfer receipts that were partly offset by increases in compensation and farm proprietors’ income.

  • Personal dividend income decreased $39.7 billion, reflecting dividend information from company financial statements.
  • Personal current transfer receipts decreased $21.6 billion, led by a decrease of $34.4 billion in other government social benefits reflecting estimated Affordable Care Act enrollments.
  • Within compensation, the increase was led by private wages and salaries based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES).
  • The increase in farm proprietors’ income reflected payments to farmers from the Farmer Bridge Assistance program.

An adjustment to the PCE price index for legal services was maintained for the month of January. No adjustment was made for the month of February. For more information on why BEA sometimes adjusts source data, refer to the FAQ “Does BEA adjust source data that are used to estimate GDP and related measures?”.

Revisions to personal income

Estimates have been updated for October through January, reflecting updated BLS CES data. The increase in wages and salaries for January was 0.5 percent, the same as previously estimated.

Related Data Tables

For the statistics highlighted in this release, as well as historical time series for these estimates, see the following data tables in BEA’s Interactive Data Application.

Table 2.6. Personal Income and Its Disposition 
Table 2.8.1. Percent Change From Preceding Period in Real PCE by Major Type of Product 
Table 2.8.5. PCE by Major Type of Product 
Table 2.8.6. Real PCE by Major Type of Product 
Table 2.8.7. Percent Change From Preceding Period in Prices for PCE by Major Type of Product 
Table 2.8.11. Real PCE by Major Type of Product: Percent Change From Month One Year Ago

Note. With the next release of PIO, today’s data will be superseded, and the links above will reflect the latest data. The original data featured in this release can then be accessed in BEA’s Data Archive.

 

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