Consumer Spending, Income Up: Gains in February Buoy Recovery Hopes
leased yesterday, showing strong gains last month in personal income and spending, provided new evidence that consumers were adding their weight to economic recovery.</br></br>The Commerce Department reported that consumers increased their spending for goods and services by an inflation-adjusted 0.6 percent last month on the heels of an even larger 0.9 percent increase in January. The January figure originally was reported; as a far smaller 0.1 percent increase.</br></br>ÛÏI think itÛªs real,Û declared Allen Sinai, chief economist at the Boston Co., an investment advisory firm. ÛÏTheÛª consumer has given a start to recov-; ery that will be sustained.Û</br></br>F.	Ward McCarthy of Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, a financial markets research firm in Princeton, NJÛ_ agreed. '1 donÛªt think there is any question that this data confirms that a recovery began in January. Consumers are spending more and are more comfortable about it."</br></br>Some of that comfort emerged in the University of MichiganÛªs monthly survey of consumers. The Michigan index of consumer sentiment rose to 76 from 68.8 in February and 67.5 in January. A separate index of consumersÛª assessment of current economic conditions also rose, to 84.9 from 79.7, while the one showing their expectations about the future increased to 70.3 from 61.8.	-