The data published
by the Federal Reserve on Thursday revealed that the U.S. industrial production
dropped by 0.3 per cent m-o-m in September,
following a downwardly revised 0.3 per cent m-o-m increase m-o-m (from +0.8 per cent m-o-m) in August.
Economists had predicted
industrial production would decrease by 0.2 per cent m-o-m in September.
According to
the report, the September total industrial production was impacted by a strike at a major
producer of civilian aircraft, which held down its growth by an estimated 0.3
per cent, and the effects of two hurricanes, which subtracted an estimated 0.3
per cent. As a result, manufacturing production fell by 0.4 per cent m-o-m last
month, and mining output reduced by 0.6 per cent m-o-m. Meanwhile, the output of
utilities gained 0.7 per cent m-o-m.
Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased by 0.3 percentage point m-o-m to 77.5 per cent in September from a downwardly revised 77.8 per cent (from 78.0 per
cent) in August. That was 0.3 percentage point below economists’ forecast of 77.8 per cent and 2.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2023)
average.
In y-o-y terms,
the industrial output declined
0.6 per cent in September, following a downwardly revised 0.2 per cent slip (from 0.0 per
cent) in the previous month. This represented the sharpest annual fall
since April (-0.8 per cent).
For the third
quarter as a whole, the U.S. total industrial production dropped by 0.6 per
cent y-o-y.