That cut the annual rate of consumer spending on energy goods and services to $495 billion, from $503 billion, in the first quarter of 2009, bringing the percentage of personal consumption spending down to 5percentt, from 5.1percentt in the old data.
While the unadjusted rate of consumer spending declined 0.6percentt last month, after a 1percentt drop in October, economists suggested that the relative increase in spending was a rare piece of good news.
Since the beginning of 2000, the growth rate of consumer spending in the United States has fallen to a meager1.2percentnt from a robust 5percentt, as layoffs and falling stocks have left people with more worries and less money.
"While the recent data suggested markedly slower growth in consumer spending in the first quarter than seen in 2015, most participants expected to see a pickup in the growth rate of consumer spending in coming months in light of the still-solid fundamental determinants of household spending," according to the minutes.
In 2010 China's income per person was 16% of America's, according to the IMF.The research shows that economies such as China's, with an undervalued currency and a low rate of consumer spending, are more likely to suffer such a growth slowdown.
Inventories have been cut so dramatically the last few months that even at the current rate of consumer spending businesses will soon have no choice but to re-order and hence spur manufacturing.
One big drag on growth in the first quarter was a sharp downward revision in the growth rate of consumer spending, to 2.6percentt annualized from an earlier estimate of 3.4percentt.
The biggest surprise was the pace of consumer spending, which grew at 2.6 percent, not the 3.4 percent rate previously estimated.
A softer pace of consumer spending is expected to limit G.D.P. growth to a 1.8 percent rate this quarter, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
"These included the possibility that higher rates in part reflected growing optimism about the economic outlook that would engender a faster pace of business spending, more than offsetting the effects of the higher rates on consumer spending".
