U. S. consumer spending suffered another month of record decline in April as the COVID-19 pandemic undercut demand, buttressing expectations that the economy could contract in the second quarter at its steepest pace since the Great Depression.
U. S. consumer spending suffered another month of record decline in April as the COVID-19 pandemic undercut demand, buttressing expectations that the economy could contract in the second quarter at its steepest pace since the Great Depression.
The Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U. S. economic activity, plunged 13.6% last month. That was the biggest drop since the government started tracking the series in 1959, and eclipsed the previous all-time decrease of 6.9% in March.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending would plummet 12.6% in April. Spending last month was depressed by a drop in outlays on healthcare as dental offices closed and hospitals postponed elective surgeries and non-emergency visits to focus on patients suffering from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
