Stephen Bishaha

Even if you take gas out of the equation, spending was up 3.9 percent.

Consumers also bought more tickets to fly, despite airfare being up 27 percent from last year.

David Tinsley is senior economist at the Bank of America Institute, and he says the spending is continuing despite economic tailwinds from inflation.

Almost to a surprising extent.

Most consumers are weathering those.

But there are some tension points for lower and middle income households.

Their spending growth is actually running still a little bit ahead of their wage growth.

Meaning some consumers have to make that up in other ways, like cutting into how much they're saving or what savings they have.

Stephen Basaha, NPR News.