Microsoft payout drives record personal income growth in US - update 2

02/01/05 - newratings.com

NEW YORK, February 1 (newratings.com) – US consumer spending continued to improve last month, with personal income increasing by a record 3.7% in December 2004 on the highest-ever dividend payout in corporate history by Microsoft (MSFT). The gains realized by Microsoft's founder and chairman, Bill Gates, from the payout alone contributed 0.4% to the overall personal income growth in the US last month.

The US Commerce Department said in a report on Monday that consumer spending increased by 0.8% in December 2004, while the price index for consumer spending, a measure of inflation, declined by 0.1%. Both consumer spending and personal income had increased by 0.4% each in November 2004. The report added that the core inflation index, which excludes the volatile energy and food costs, remained unchanged last month. According to the Commerce Department’s report, Microsoft's $32 billion dividend payment contributed about $24.8 billion to the personal income figures for December 2004. The report said that personal income increased by a relatively modest 0.6% last month, excluding the impact of the large dividend payment by the software giant. The Microsoft payout helped boost the full-year dividend income by 12.3% to a record of $441 billion in 2004, while wages and salaries increased by just 4.7% to $5.343 trillion last year.