国际英语新闻：U.S. consumer spending rises 0.7 percent in December

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. consumer spending rose 0.7 percent in December, the sixth straight monthly increase, and personal income also rose, reported the Commerce Department on Monday.

Personal consumption expenditures gained 69.5 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.7 percent in December, faster than the 0.3 increase in November.

Disposable personal income increased 47.3 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.4 percent, in December. Private wage and salary disbursements increased 15.5 billion U.S. dollars last month, said the department.

For all of 2010, consumers boosted spending 3.5 percent. That was the best performance since a 5.2 percent rise in 2007, before the recession began.

In December, the U.S. savings rate dropped slightly to 5.3 percent, the lowest rate since August 2009. But it is still well above the 2.1 percent average savings rate for all of 2007.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the total U.S. economic activity, and experts expect the rebound of consumption will strengthen the economic recovery in 2011.