One last glance at the economy of before.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabrina Banishore in for David Brancaccio.

We got a whole lot of economic data this morning, and it is painting a picture of this economy for the month of January, meaning what the economy was like before the mass layoffs, the cuts in research spending,

the cuts in purchases from farmers for food aid. The list goes on. So for starters, inflation.

Inflation as measured by the PCE price index was 2.5% year over year in January. That is

down from 2.6% measured the month before. Christopher Lowe is

chief economist with FHN Financial in New York, and he's here to go through all of this with us.

Good morning. Good morning, Sabri.

Am I wrong to say that inflation improved a little bit? We were in a little better place in

January when it comes to inflation. Oh, that's exactly right. The year-on-year inflation rate, both headline and core,

excluding food and energy, were just a little lower in January than they were in December.

Inflation's running at about two and a half percent. You know, go back a year. That's roughly where the Fed thought it would be

at this point. Personal income increased nine-tenths of a percent in January. That seems large.

Why would personal income have increased like that? It is an unusually big monthly increase,

and it reflects the annual cost of living

adjustment for social security recipients. Social security payouts were up 2.8% in January. It's a nice

income boost that should translate into better spending in future months.

But spending was down in January.

Is that because we just spent everything for Christmas?

No, it's that unusual cold snap, that polar vortex.

The biggest weakness was auto sales, but good spending in general was down.

There was also maybe the beginning of the doge effect on consumption.

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