WORLD> America
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Rising prices beat down consumer spending in June
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-04 22:17 The spending and incomes report showed that prices shot up by 0.8 percent. Excluding food and energy, the increase was 0.3 percent, up from a 0.2 percent rise in May and the biggest one-month gain since a similar 0.3 percent rise last September. After-tax incomes fell by 1.9 percent in June following a huge 5.7 percent surge in May, both months heavily influenced by how the government accounted for the stimulus payments. Excluding those payments, after-tax incomes would have rise by 0.3 percent in June after a 0.4 percent rise in May. The savings rate, as a percent of after-tax incomes, dropped to 2.5 percent in June after having shot up to 4.9 percent in May. |