Consumer Prices, Consumer Spending Both Flat In April

By Mark Memmott

Published May 15, 2012 at 9:25 AM EDT

Two bits of economic news this morning:

-- Consumer prices overall were unchanged in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, thanks in large part to a 2.6 percent drop in the price of gasoline.

-- Consumer spending rose just 0.1 percent in April from March, the Census Bureau says. According to Bloomberg News, some of the slowdown in spending growth may have been because unusually warm weather and pre-Easter shopping pushed March sales up more than expected.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott

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