Women control up to 80% of all discretionary consumer expenditure.

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The irony is that until recently the Bank was worried about the obdurate strength of consumer expenditure at a time when the public sector was turning into a big spender.

ECONOMIST: The economy

He notes that with little fanfare the Fed recently switched its inflation benchmark from the Personal Consumption Expenditure deflator to the Consumer Price Index.

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Innovation is not driven by high expenditure on research and development, but by the company's insights into consumer habits.

ECONOMIST: Consumer goods: Cleaning up | The