WHAT'S BEHIND THE NUMBERS

A government report on Friday showed consumer spending, which accounts for over 70 percent of economic activity, rose at a 1.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, but slower than the 2.2 percent increase the Commerce Department had previously estimated. Consumption plunged in the second half of last year.

Personal income rose 0.5 percent, the biggest increase since May last year, after falling by a revised 0.2 percent in March. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast income to fall 0.2 percent in April.
Disposable income surged 1.1 percent in April, boosted by tax cuts and increased social benefit payments under the government's record $787 billion stimulus package, the Commerce Department said. Excluding the stimulus package, disposable income increased 0.7 percent in April.

"The income data was skewed by the stimulus, where unemployment insurance was accelerated and extended. If you take that out it doesn't look as good as it seems," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.
S
avings jumped to a record annual rate of $620.2 billion. The savings rate rose to 5.7 percent in April, the highest level since February 1995, from 4.5 percent the previous month.
Households, buffeted by job losses and falling asset values, are cutting spending on nonessential items, preferring to save any extra income.
Inflation nudged up in April, with the personal consumption expenditures price index, excluding food and energy, at 1.9 percent on a year-over-year basis from 1.8 percent in March.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman)