By Jeffrey Sparshott | The Wall Street Journal
Consumer spending grew broadly but unevenly across the U.S. last year, driven largely by housing and utilities, health care, and other services.
A new Commerce Department report out Tuesday showed personal-consumption expenditures ranged from a robust 7.4% increase in North Dakota to a more muted 2.1% rise in West Virginia. Nationwide, spending was up 4.2% last year versus 3.1% in 2013.
The data only partially captures a big drop in oil prices–it shows spending on gasoline down across the country but likely wouldn’t reflect layoffs and a slowdown in investment across the energy sector, which didn’t fully materialize until this year.
