DEFINITION of 'Personal Consumption Expenditures-PCE'. A measure of price changes in consumer goods and services. Personal consumption expenditures consist of the actual and imputed expenditures of households; the measure includes data pertaining to durables, non-durables and services.It is essentially a measure of goods and services targeted toward individuals and consumed by individuals. Also referred to as consumption..here are two broad indexes of consumer prices in the United States: the CPI and the Chain Price Index for Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCEPI).