Personal consumption expenditures in the United States rose 4.3 percent in 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Arkansas matched the U.S. pace, but a 1.8 percent inflation rate means that real personal consumption in the state was up 2.5 percent, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“From 2011 through 2015, Arkansas PCE growth ran slightly slower than the national average,” Pakko said on his blog, ArkansasEconomist.com. “In 2016 and 2017, Arkansas’ growth rate has kept pace with the rest of the nation.”
The fastest-growing components of personal consumption spending last year in Arkansas were gasoline and other energy goods, financial services and insurance, and health care.
