[Excerpt] Consumer units (CUs) spent $48,398, on average, in 2006, a 4.3-percent increase over the previous year. This was a more moderate increase than the 6.9-percent growth in spending in 2005 and the 6.3-percent increase in 2004. The release of the 2006 data marks the availability of 3 years of directly comparable income data that include imputed incomes for missing values. Consumer expenditures rose more than the 3.2-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Items in 2006. This report shows the latest results from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE).