The data released
by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday showed that the U.S. industrial production inched
up 0.1 per cent m-o-m in December 2023, following a downwardly revised flat m-o-m performance (from +0.2
per cent m-o-m) in November. This marked the first monthly increase in
industrial output in three months.
Economists had anticipated
industrial production would be unchanged m-o-m in December.
According to
the report, the December uptick in total industrial production reflected increases
in manufacturing
production (+0.1 per cent m-o-m) and mining output (+0.9 per cent m-o-m) that
were partly offset by a decline in output of utilities (-1.0 per cent m-o-m)
Meanwhile,
capacity utilization for the industrial sector remained unchanged at 78.6 per cent in December, holding
near its 2-1/4 year lows.
That was 0.1 percentage point below economists’ forecast of 78.7 per cent and
1.1 percentage points below its
long-run (1972-2022) average.
In y-o-y terms,
the industrial output climbed 1.0 per cent in December, following a downwardly
revised 0.6 per cent fall
(from -0.4 per cent) in the previous month. That was the first annual rise in U.S.
industrial production in four months and represented the strongest gain since January
2023 (+1.5 per cent).
For the fourth
quarter as a whole, the U.S. total industrial production decreased 3.1 per cent
y-o-y.