Consumer spending remained strong during the holiday season despite elevated prices
By Alicia Wallace, CNN
(CNN) — Consumers continued to ramp up their spending as the holiday shopping season revved up in November, but high prices continued to bite, new data showed Thursday.
A shutdown-delayed report from the Commerce Department showed that spending rose 0.5% from October, an increase that was above economists’ expectations for a 0.4% gain.
When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.3%.
The report also showed that inflation remained stubbornly higher than normal, according to the shutdown-delayed report that also included previously unreleased data for October.
The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — the inflation gauge the Federal Reserve uses for its 2% target rate — rose 0.2% on a monthly basis, which brought the annual rate to 2.8%.
Economists were expecting inflation to rise 0.2% from October and 2.8% for the year ended in November, according to FactSet consensus estimates.
This story is developing and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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