The data released
by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday revealed that the U.S. industrial production dropped
by 0.2 per cent m-o-m in May, following
an upwardly revised 0.1 per cent m-o-m advance (from flat m-o-m)
in April.
Economists had expected
industrial production would increase 0.1 per cent m-o-m in May.
According to
the report, May’s decline in industrial production reflected a plunge in output
of utilities (-2.9 per cent m-o-m) that was partly offset by gains in manufacturing
output (+0.1 per cent m-o-m) and mining production (+0.1 per cent m-o-m).
Meanwhile, capacity
utilisation for the industrial sector decreased
by 0.3 percentage point m-o-m to 77.4 per cent in May from an unrevised 77.7 per cent in April. That was 0.3 percentage
point below economists’ estimate of
77.7 per cent and 2.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2024) average.
In y-o-y terms, the industrial output increased 0.6 per cent in May, following
a downwardly unrevised 1.4
per cent rise (from +1.5 per cent) in the previous month. This marked
the weakest annual rise in U.S. industrial production since December 2024 (+0.4
per cent).