August spending up

Consumer spending in August rose by 0.4%, the same increase as July and slightly ahead of

analysts' expectations.

Consumer spending data is of high importance as it accounts for some 70% of the US economy.

On Friday, New York Federal Reserve Bank president, William Dudley, said the Federal Reserve might need to take more action to boost growth unless the economic outlook improved.

He said: "Further action is likely to be warranted unless the economic outlook evolves in such a way that makes me more confident that we will see better outcomes for both employment and inflation before long."

The latest numbers are consistent with the latest revision of US growth figures, which was released on Thursday. These showed the US economy growing at an annualised rate of 1.7% in the second quarter of the year, up from an earlier estimate of 1.6%.

However, the figure still marked a sharp slowdown from the growth rate of 3.7% recorded in the first quarter of 2010.