Households likely boosted spending last month as incomes rose, forecasters say, another sign the U.S. economy continued recovering into the fall from the damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Economists expect the Commerce Department to report Friday that personal-consumption expenditures — a measure of household spending on goods and services — rose 1 percent in September, the same increase as in the previous month. Household spending has been rising after a steep drop off earlier in the pandemic, although the pace of gains slowed over the summer and into the fall. Personal income — a measure of what households receive from wages and salaries, government aid and investments — is expected to rise 0.5 percent in September, after a sharp decline in August. A moderate rebound in personal income would likely reflect the impact of a federal supplement to state unemployment benefits that provides recipients with an extra $300 a week, said Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial Corp. The Commerce Department said August’s drop in personal income was due mostly to the end of a separate program that provided a $600 weekly bonus to recipients of unemployment benefits.
