Consumer spending in the US grew at its fastest pace in three years during 2010, official figures have shown.

官方统计数据显示，2010年美国消费性开支增长是近三年以来最高的一年。

Consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of activity in the US, the world\s largest economy.
Spending grew by 3.5% from 2009 the Commerce Department said, the best showing since a 5.2% rise in 2007 - before the country went into recession.

The 2010 levels were helped by a strong December, where spending grew by 0.7%, the sixth consecutive¹（连贯的） month of growth.

Consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of activity in the US, the world's largest economy.

Rising incomes and the faster increase in spending meant that the savings² rate dipped slightly in December, the data showed.

Economists⁴ expect that spending and savings will be boosted further in 2011, if the job market continues to slowly improve and with a cut in payroll⁵ tax.

"As hiring picks up this year, income gains should accelerate noticeably（显著地） , providing fuel for both modestly faster spending growth than in 2010 and a renewed rise in the savings rate," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist³ for Pierpont Securities,

However, there is concern over whether these gains will be enough to offset⁶（抵消，补偿） further cutbacks in government spending and the weak housing market.

Last week, figures showed that US economic growth accelerated in the last three months of 2010 to an annualised（年度的） rate of 3.2%, up from a rate of 2.6% in the previous quarter.