The data released
by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday revealed that the U.S. industrial production increased
0.4 per cent m-o-m in March, following an upwardly revised 0.4 per cent m-o-m advance
(from +0.1 per cent
m-o-m) in February.
Economists had expected
industrial production would rise 0.4 per cent m-o-m in March.
According to
the report, the March gain in total industrial production reflected increases in manufacturing
production (+0.5 per cent m-o-m) and output of utilities (+2.0 per cent m-o-m) that
were partly offset by a drop in mining output (-1.4 per cent m-o-m).
Meanwhile, capacity
utilization for the industrial sector increased 0.2 percentage point m-o-m to 78.4 per cent in March from a downwardly
revised 78.2 per cent (from 78.3 per cent) in February. That was 0.1 percentage
point below economists’ forecast of 78.5 per cent and 1.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2023) average.
In y-o-y terms,
the industrial output was unchanged in March, following a downwardly revised 0.3 per cent drop (from -0.2 per cent) in the previous
month.
For the first
quarter as a whole, the U.S. total industrial production fell by 1.8 per cent
y-o-y.