US personal incomes and spending surge as stimulus checks arrive

Americans splashed out at the start of 2020 as government stimulus checks began arriving in their mailboxes.

According to the US Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms US personal income growth was boosted to a month-on-month gain of 10.0% in January, which dwarfed the 0.6% rise registered in December.

Economists correctly anticipated that jump, but not the 2.0% surge in personal consumption that followed (consensus: 0.7%).

To take note of, the personal saving rate rocketed to 20.5% of Americans' disposable income alongside.

Some price pressures were also apparent, but they were only slight, with the year-on-year rate of increase in the price deflator for personal consumption expenditures edging up from 1.3% to 1.5%.

It was a similar story at the so-called 'core' level, with the annual rate of price increases accelerating by one tenth of a percentage point.