U.S. Industrial Production Rose 0.9% in December
January 17 2018 - 9:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Chaney and Harriet Torry
WASHINGTON--U.S. industrial production rose sharply in December
despite slow growth in the manufacturing sector, its largest
component.
Industrial production--a measure of output at factories, mines
and utilities--rose a seasonally adjusted 0.9% in December from the
prior month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected the
index to rise 0.5%. November industrial production was revised to a
0.1% decline from an originally reported gain of 0.2%.
From a year earlier, industrial production rose 3.6% in
December, the largest annual gain since 2010. In the fourth quarter
as a whole, industrial production jumped 8.2% at an annual rate
"after being held down in the third quarter by Hurricanes Harvey
and Irma," the Fed said.
Wednesday's report showed output in the volatile mining sector
increased 1.6% in December. The mining index, which includes oil
and natural gas extraction, was up 11.5% from a year earlier.
Utility output grew 5.6% from the prior month.
Manufacturing output, the biggest component of industrial
production, edged up 0.1% in December. The December increase shows
a pullback in growth from October and November, when output grew
1.5% and 0.3% respectively.
Capacity use, a measure of slack in the industrial economy,
increased 0.7 percentage point to 77.9% in December. Economists had
expected capacity utilization of 77.3% in December.
The longer-term trend in manufacturing has illustrated a pickup
in the sector over the past year, due to a weaker dollar, more
stable oil prices and global economic growth.
Industrial production was knocked off course in the third
quarter, as hurricanes that battered the southern and eastern U.S.
in the late summer caused refineries and plants on the Gulf Coast
to shut down and stalled other keys parts of the manufacturing
process.
The Federal Reserve's report on industrial production can be
found at:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/Releases/g17/current/default.htm.
Write to Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com and Harriet Torry
at harriet.torry@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 17, 2018 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.