BEA said September personal income rose 0.2% and the PCE price index 0.5%

Personal income increased $54.5 billion, or 0.2%, in September, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said in estimates released Oct. 29. Disposable personal income, which is personal income minus personal current taxes, increased $52.7 billion, or 0.2%. Personal consumption expenditures increased $113.1 billion, or 0.5%. Personal outlays, the sum of those expenditures, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments, increased $113.0 billion. Personal saving was $911.1 billion, and the saving rate was 3.8% of disposable income. The October report is scheduled for Nov. 25. These are BEA’s estimates for September, not a projection of October.

The PCE price index increased 0.5% from August. Excluding food and energy, it increased 0.3%. From September 2025, the price index increased 3.6%, and the index excluding food and energy increased 3.1%. That monthly index is separate from the quarterly PCE price index inside BEA’s third-quarter GDP release. Real disposable income fell 0.3% in September after no change in August, the release’s table shows. Real PCE increased $2.6 billion, which BEA describes as less than 0.1%. The table lists real PCE as 0.0% after rounding, following 0.5% in August.

BEA said the income increase mainly reflected compensation and government social benefits. Within compensation, private wages and salaries led, using Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data. The benefits increase was led by Medicare, using data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the federal budget. Of the $113.1 billion rise in current-dollar spending, $35.1 billion was goods and $78.1 billion was services.

The same table shows August’s current-dollar income and disposable income each up 0.3%, current-dollar spending up 0.9%, the PCE price index up 0.3%, and the core index up 0.3%. BEA said July and August income estimates were updated for revised employment data, and that the revision to personal interest income was led by monetary interest, using data from the Bureau of the Fiscal Service. A revision is a change to a prior estimate. It is not a new forecast.