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US consumer spending falls for record sixth straight month

Business Materials 2 February 2009 21:22 (UTC +04:00)

US consumer spending dropped 1 per cent in December, a record sixth straight monthly decline and rounding out the country's worst year for consumers since 1961, the Commerce Department said Monday, dpa reported.

The drop from a month at an annual rate was larger than economists had predicted, according to Bloomberg News, and compared to a revised 0.8-per-cent drop in November.

Many consumers have turned to saving in the last few months as the United States, the world's largest economy, grapples with a serious recession that began in December 2007. The US economy shrank 3.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, the largest quarterly drop in 27 years.

For the whole of 2008, consumer spending climbed 3.6 per cent, the smallest increase since 1961.

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