U.S. consumers are digging deeper into their wallets to cover rising costs of essentials such as rent and utilities as inflation spreads, a government spending report for August showed.
Household spending rose by a solid 0.4% in August after dropping a revised 0.2% in July, the Commerce Department said Friday. The August increase was just 0.1% after accounting for inflation. The higher spending came amid signs that inflation, already close to a four-decade high, has become increasingly entrenched in the U.S. economy despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive moves to tighten monetary policy.