Fla. consumer spending higher than pre-recession, but growth lags slightly behind nation

Three years after the Great Recession officially ended, consumer spending by Floridians had surpassed the pre-recession high, but Florida lagged slightly behind the rest of the nation in spending growth.

State-level figures released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show that per capita consumer spending in 2012 grew 3.1 percent over the previous year in Florida.

However, that was slightly weaker than the 3.3 percent growth in per capita consumer spending by the nation in 2012, the most recent year figures are available.

Each Floridian, on average, spent $33,755 on consumer goods in 2012.

Of that amount, almost $6,000 was spent on housing and more than $5,600 was spent on health care.

The average Floridian spent $2,900 on food and more than $1,000 on gasoline.