The data released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday revealed that the
U.S. industrial production edged down 0.1 percent m-o-m in December, following
an upwardly revised 0.7 percent m-o-m gain (from 0.5 percent m-o-m) in November.
This marked the first monthly drop in industrial production in three months.
Economists had expected industrial production would increase 0.3 percent
m-o-m in December.
According to the report, the December fall in total industrial
production was due to declines in manufacturing production and utilities output,
which were down 0.3 percent m-o-m and 1.5 percent m-o-m respectively. These
decreases, however, were partly offset by a 2.0 percent m-o-m increase in mining
production.
Meanwhile, capacity utilization for the industrial sector inched down 0.1
percentage point m-o-m to 76.5 percent in December from a downwardly revised
76.6 percent (from 76.8 percent) in November. That was 0.5 percentage point below economists’ forecast of
77.0 percent and 3.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2020) average.
In y-o-y terms, the industrial output rose 3.7 percent in December, following a downwardly revised 5.0 percent surge
(from 5.3 percent advance) in the prior month and being 0.6 percent above its
pre-pandemic level.
For the fourth quarter as a whole, the U.S. total industrial production grew
4.0 percent y-o-y.