Electricity Expenditures Up, Most Everything Else Down

During this summer, the months of June, July and August specifically, expenditures by American consumers on electricity increased 8.5 percent as compared with June, July and August of 2019. It’s a very large but understandable increase because so many Americans are staying in their homes much more than in the past prior to the pandemic.

At the same time, expenditures by consumers for everything else, other than for electricity, decreased by 2.9 percent, in the summer of 2020 versus the summer of 2019. Indeed, expenditures by consumers for services other than for electricity, decreased a lot, by 6.7 percent. That’s a real important stat on the economy’s health – or lack thereof – since consumer expenditures on services are generally about half of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.