Personal Consumption Expenditures: 21.47T (Dec 2025)
The pce moved to 21.47T in Dec 2025, up 91.00 from 21.38T in Nov 2025. Year-over-year, the reading is up 960.60 from 20.51T.
PCE - Historical Chart
Personal Consumption Expenditures. Gray shaded areas indicate U.S. recessions.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), Series PCE. Shaded areas = NBER recession dates. Updated 2026-03-09.
What the Dec 2025 Data Shows
At 21.47T, the pce in Dec 2025 is above the 10-year average of 16.21T by 5262.85. The metric has risen in each of the last 6 months.
Personal Consumption Expenditures (FRED series PCE) is the Bureau of Economic Analysis's comprehensive measure of consumer spending. It is broader than retail sales because it includes services (healthcare, housing, financial services) in addition to goods. PCE accounts for roughly 68% of U.S. GDP.
The PCE report also serves as the basis for the Fed's preferred inflation measure (PCE price index), making it doubly important for economic analysis. The nominal PCE number shows total spending; the real (inflation-adjusted) version shows volume growth.
Because PCE includes imputed items (like the rental value of owner-occupied housing), it does not always match consumers' perception of their own spending. But it is the most complete measure available for tracking the consumer economy.
What This Metric Measures
This page tracks total personal consumption expenditures in billions of dollars -- the broadest measure of consumer spending covering goods, services, and imputed items. The data comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database, series PCE, updated monthly.
Historical Context
The all-time peak was 21.47T in Dec 2025. The all-time trough was 306.1B in Jan 1959. During COVID-19 in 2020, the reading hit 14.87T (Jan 2020). Year-over-year, the metric has moved 4.7%.
Why It Matters
PCE is the GDP engine. When personal consumption grows, GDP grows. When it contracts (which is rare -- only during severe recessions), the economy is in trouble. The Fed watches PCE closely when calibrating interest rate policy.
For business owners, the PCE trend shows whether the overall spending pie is growing or shrinking. Your business competes for a share of PCE. If PCE is growing 3% and your revenue is growing 1%, you are losing ground relative to the economy.
What This Means for Business Owners
Understanding where this metric stands relative to historical norms helps business owners make better borrowing decisions. Metrics far from their 10-year average often signal turning points that affect the cost and availability of credit.
Personal Consumption Expenditures - Frequently Asked Questions
Personal consumption expenditures are 21.47T in Dec 2025, per FRED series PCE.
PCE moved up from the prior month. The metric has risen in each of the last 6 months.
PCE includes services (healthcare, rent, insurance, financial services) while retail sales primarily covers goods. Services represent about 60% of PCE. PCE also includes imputed items that retail sales omits.
The PCE price index accounts for consumers substituting between goods when prices change, while CPI assumes a fixed basket. PCE also has broader coverage. As a result, PCE inflation typically runs slightly lower than CPI.
Approximately 68%. This makes consumer spending the single largest component of GDP, far exceeding business investment, government spending, or net exports.
FRED series PCE, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis Personal Income and Outlays report. Published monthly.
Related Data & Guides
Data sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Updated monthly when new data is released.