Consumer Spending Still Isn't Even Close To Making A Full Recovery

Consumer spending still hasn't grown to pre-crisis levels, and it isn't all that close.

In a post on the New York Fed's blog on Wednesday Jonathan McCarthy, VP at the Fed's research and statistics group, took a look at how sluggish the recovery in consumer spending has been since the financial crisis.

From pre-financial crisis levels, real consumer discretionary fell 8%, and even still it is languishing more than 3% below pre-crisis levels.

"Discretionary expenditures have picked up noticeably over recent quarters," McCarthy writes. "But, unlike spending on nondiscretionary services, they remain well below their pre-recession peak. Even so, the pace of recovery for both discretionary and nondiscretionary services in this expansion is well below that of previous cycles."

It's been a rocky road to repairing the economy since the damage suffered during the financial crisis, and as far as consumers are considered, there is still a long way to go.