The data published
by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday revealed that the U.S. industrial
production rose by 0.3 per cent m-o-m in June, following an upwardly flat m-o-m performance (from
-0.2 per cent m-o-m) in May. This marked the strongest monthly advance in
industrial production since February (+1.0 per cent m-o-m).
Economists had forecast
industrial production would edge up 0.1 per cent m-o-m in June.
According to
the report, the
June increase in industrial output reflected gains in output of
utilities (+2.8 per cent m-o-m) and manufacturing production (+0.1 per cent
m-o-m) that was partly offset by a decline in mining production (-0.3 per cent
m-o-m).
Meanwhile, capacity
utilisation for the industrial sector improved by
0.1 percentage point m-o-m to 77.6 per cent in June from an upwardly revised
77.5 per cent (from 77.4 per cent) in May. That was 0.2 percentage point above economists’ prediction of 77.4 per cent but
2.0 percentage points below its
long-run (1972-2024) average.
In y-o-y terms,
the industrial output grew 0.7 per
cent in June, following an upwardly revised 0.7 per cent rise (from +0.6 per cent) in the previous
month.
For the second
quarter as a whole, the U.S. total industrial production increased by 1.1 per
cent y-o-y.