PCE prices rose 0.5% in September as inflation-adjusted spending edged up

U.S. prices measured by personal consumption expenditures rose 0.5% in September from August and 3.6% from September 2025, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Its October 29 release also showed that spending adjusted for price changes increased by less than 0.1% over the month.

Excluding food and energy, PCE prices rose 0.3% from August and 3.1% from a year earlier. Those figures describe a different price index; the exclusion alone does not establish which components drove the overall change.

In current dollars, personal consumption expenditures rose 0.5% in September. Personal income rose 0.2%. Disposable personal income—the amount remaining after personal current taxes—also rose 0.2% in current dollars, but fell 0.3% after adjustment for price changes. The personal saving rate was 3.8% of disposable personal income.

The spending measures slowed from August in the same October 29 set of estimates. Current-dollar PCE had risen 0.9% in August from July, while real PCE had risen 0.5%. September's real increase, though small, remained positive.

BEA's definitions explain why the measures tell different parts of the story. PCE covers goods and services bought by or on behalf of U.S. residents, while current-dollar values use prices from the transaction period and real values remove the effect of price changes. These are aggregate estimates; the income and saving figures do not describe every household's experience.

Mira Vale analysis: The September figures show a gap between the increase in spending measured at current prices and the much smaller increase after adjusting for prices. The decline in real disposable income adds another perspective on the month's aggregate income picture. Neither comparison establishes what any particular household experienced or explains what caused the changes.

The release's levels are stated at seasonally adjusted annual rates, and dollar changes compare those levels. BEA says this convention helps comparisons; it is distinct from the monthly percentage changes and the year-over-year price comparisons reported above. Its annual-rates explainer describes the convention.

BEA says its July and August estimates incorporated revised Current Employment Statistics data, and that new Treasury Fiscal Service data informed the interest-income revision. The figures in this report use the October 29 release vintage. BEA cautions that interactive links update and directs readers to its data archive; the values at those links may change.