US personal income rose more than expected in February as the economy teetered on the brink of a recession, a government report showed this afternoon.
The Commerce Department reported that February personal income rose 0.5 per cent, exceeding a forecast of a 0.3 per cent gain made by analysts polled before the report.
US stock index futures briefly added to gains after the report, while the dollar and US government debt prices rose.
The department said personal spending increased 0.1 per cent in February, in line with expectations, after a 0.4 per cent gain in January.
The personal consumption expenditure price index, a key measure of inflation, rose 0.1 per cent in February after a downwardly revised increase of 0.3 per cent in January.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the personal consumption expenditure index also rose just 0.1 per cent, in line with analyst expectations.
On a year-over-year basis, this core index rose 2 per cent, matching the prior months' gain, which was downwardly revised from 2.2 per cent.
Many officials at the Federal Reserve, which has cut interest rates by 3 percentage points since mid-September in a bid to combat recession risks, have said they prefer to keep the core price gauge in a 1 per cent to 2 per cent range.