The data issued
by the Federal Reserve on Thursday showed that the U.S. industrial production was unchanged m-o-m in April,
following an unrevised 0.3 per cent
m-o-m decrease in March.
Economists had predicted
industrial production would rise 0.2 per cent m-o-m in April.
According to
the report, April’s flat performance
in industrial output reflected declines in manufacturing output (-0.4 per
cent m-o-m) and mining production (-0.3 per cent m-o-m) that were offset by a surge
in output of utilities (+3.3 per cent m-o-m).
Capacity utilisation for the industrial sector slipped by 0.1 percentage point m-o-m to 77.7 per cent in April from an unrevised 77.8 per cent in March. That was 0.1 percentage
point below economists’ forecast of
77.8 per cent and 1.9 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2024) average.
In y-o-y terms, the industrial output grew 1.5 per cent in April, following an
unrevised 1.3 per cent rise in the previous month. This represented the strongest
annual increase in U.S. industrial production since January (+1.7 per cent).