The data issued
by the Federal Reserve on Friday revealed that the U.S. industrial production edged
up 0.1 per cent m-o-m in February, following a downwardly revised 0.5 per cent
m-o-m drop (from -0.1 per
cent m-o-m) in January. This marked the first monthly advance in industrial
output in three months.
Economists had forecast
industrial production would be
unchanged m-o-m in February.
According to
the report, the February uptick in total industrial production reflected recoveries
from weather-related declines in manufacturing production (+0.8 per cent m-o-m) and
mining output (+2.2 per cent m-o-m) that were partly offset by a plunge in output
of utilities (-7.5 per cent m-o-m), undermined by warmer-than-typical temperatures.
Meanwhile,
capacity utilization for the industrial sector came in at 78.3 per cent in February, unchanged from a downwardly revised 78.3 per cent (from 78.5
per cent) in January. That was 0.2 percentage point below economists’ estimate of 78.5 per
cent and 1.3 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2023) average.
In y-o-y terms, the industrial output dropped 0.2 per cent in February,
following a downwardly revised 0.3 per cent decrease (from 0.0 per cent) in the previous month.