Consumer Expenditures in 2009

Abstract

[Excerpt] Consumer units spent 2.8 percent less, on average, in 2009 than in the previous year. This drop in spending— from $50,486 in 2008 to $49,067 in 2009, in nominal dollars— marked the first time a year-to-year decrease has been measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) since the CE began publishing integrated data in 1984. In 2008, spending rose a moderate 1.7 percent, following an increase of 2.6 percent in 2007. Prices in the United States, as measured by the average annual change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items), fell 0.4 percent in 2009, following increases of 3.8 percent in 2008 and 2.8 percent in 2007. This report provides CE results for 2009, the latest year of data available.