Washington, DC, February 28--Personal spending was unchanged in January as personal income fell 2.3 percent after hitting a record in December, according to the Commerce Department.
Personal income hit record 3.7 percent increase in December, the result of a $3 per share dividend payment software company Microsoft.
Excluding that one-time impact and other factors, personal income rose 0.5 percent in January compared with a 0.6 percent gain in December.
Economists had forecast a 2.6 percent decline in personal income and a 0.1 percent increase in personal spending.
The personal saving rate was 1.0 percent in January, indicating that Americans were setting aside 1 cent from each dollar earned. That was down from 3.6 percent in December.
