Chart 2. The title is "Consumer Spending Has Continued Strong." A line graph showing the index of real personal consumption expenditures in quarters before and after the peak of the business cycle for the recession that began in second quarter 2001 and for the average of the past five recessions, 1960-1991 (the 1980s double-dip recession is treated as one). The cycle peak is 100. During the eight quarters before the peak, consumer spending in the current recession was slightly lower than consumer spending in the average of the previous five recessions. During the four quarters following the peak, by contrast, consumer spending in the current recession was significantly higher than consumer spending in the average of the previous five recessions.