Spending Shifts

Personal spending rose 0.5% in October, but ignoring inflation, remains down 1.6% from where it was in February 2020, pre-Covid-19. More interestingly, spending on durables like cars, laptops, and sporting goods is up 15.2% from February, while spending on nondurables, which includes food, clothes, and shoes, has risen 4% since 2/20. By contrast, spending on services, the largest spending component, and which covers baseball, ballet and bars, is down 5.8%.