The data released
by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday revealed that the U.S. industrial production jumped
by 0.8 per cent m-o-m in August,
following a downwardly revised 0.9 per cent m-o-m fall m-o-m (from -0.6 per cent m-o-m) in July.
This represented the strongest monthly
gain in industrial production since February (+1.2 per cent m-o-m).
Economists had expected
industrial production would increase by 0.2 per cent m-o-m in August.
According to
the report, the August growth
in total industrial production reflected a rebound in manufacturing production (+0.9 per
cent m-o-m), which was primarily due to a recovery in the index of motor
vehicles and parts, and a climb in mining output (+0.8 per cent m-o-m). Meanwhile, the output of utilities (flat per cent m-o-m) remained unchanged.
Capacity utilization for the industrial sector rose by 0.6
percentage point m-o-m to 78.0 per cent in August from a downwardly revised 77.4 per cent (from 77.8 per
cent) in July. That was 0.1 percentage point above economists’ forecast of 77.9 per cent but 1.7 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2023)
average.
In y-o-y terms, the industrial output was
unchanged in August,
following a downwardly revised 0.7 per cent decline (from -0.2 per cent) in the previous month.