The data issued
by the Federal Reserve on Friday showed that the U.S. industrial production decreased
by 0.3 per cent m-o-m in October,
following a downwardly revised 0.5 per cent m-o-m drop m-o-m (from -0.3 per cent m-o-m) in September.
Economists had expected
industrial production would decline 0.3 per cent m-o-m in October.
According to
the report, the October industrial output was impacted by a strike at a major producer of
civilian aircraft Boeing, which held down its growth by an estimated 0.2 per cent
last month, as well as the effects of two hurricanes Milton and Helene, which
subtracted an estimated 0.1 per cent. As a result, manufacturing production plunged
by 0.5 per cent m-o-m in October. Meanwhile, mining output rose by 0.3 per cent
m-o-m last month and output of utilities jumped by 0.7 per cent m-o-m.
Capacity utilization for the industrial sector fell by 0.3 percentage point m-o-m to 77.1 per cent in October from a downwardly revised 77.4 per cent (from 77.5 per
cent) in September. That was 0.1 percentage point below economists’ prediction of 77.2 per cent and 2.6 percentage
points below its long-run
(1972-2023) average.
In y-o-y terms, the industrial output slipped 0.3 per cent in October,
following a downwardly revised 0.6 per cent decline (from -0.6 per cent) in the previous month.