[Excerpt] Consumer units spent $43,395, on average, in 2004, a 6.3-percent increase over the previous year. This was the largest change in average expenditures in several years; however, there were changes to the survey in 2004, and the estimates for average annual expenditures and some of the components are not strictly comparable to estimates for previous years. (See the box on page 4 for information on the changes.) The increase in expenditures from 2003 to 2004 was more than the 2.7-percent rise in the annual average Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the same period. Spending rose 0.3 percent in 2003 and 2.9 percent in 2002. This presents the latest results from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE).