Buoyed by a “somewhat surprising” 0.5% gain in wages and salaries, personal incomes in the U.S. rose 0.4% in March, marking the eighth consecutive monthly gain for this indicator.

In a report Monday, RBC Financial Group said, overall, U.S. income growth remains healthy. “Disposable incomes grew a relatively healthy 0.3% during the month, although the yearly growth figure has eased to 4.4%, the slowest pace since December of 2001,” said RBC economist Carl Gomez.

Gomez said on the expenditure side, personal consumption grew 0.4%, slightly less than expected but led by durable good spending particularly on autos. As expected, energy prices were primarily responsible for the 0.3% increase in the personal consumption deflator during March. However, excluding food and energy, the gain was a more modest 0.1%. It is likely that this deflator will show some easing in the coming months reflecting falling energy prices.

“Of some minor concern in today’s report, the savings rate edged down to 3.6% from 3.7% during the previous month. It appears that U.S. households have recently been a little too lenient when it comes to their savings activity. Consequently, it is likely that as the economic recovery gathers momentum, a growing share of personal income will be directed towards savings as households move to shore up their balance sheets, which have been recently burdened by higher debt levels.”

Nevertheless, Gomez said, Monday’s report and last week’s first quarter GDP report show U.S. consumers have continued to spend in support of their fragile economy. “This, despite an ugly labour market and the previous uncertainties spurred by the Iraqi war,” he said.