The data published by the Federal Reserve on Friday revealed that the
U.S. industrial production was flat m-o-m in February, following an upwardly revised
0.3 percent m-o-m increase (from unchanged m-o-m) in January.
Economists had predicted industrial production would rise 0.2 percent
m-o-m in February.
According to the report, the February flat performance in total
industrial production reflected advances in the output of utilities (+0.5 percent m-o-m)
and manufacturing production (+0.1 percent m-o-m) that were offset by a drop in
mining output (-0.6 percent m-o-m).
Meanwhile, capacity utilization for the industrial sector remained at 78.0
percent in February. That was 0.4 percentage point below
economists’ forecast of 78.4 percent and 1.6 percentage points below its
long-run (1972-2022) average.
In y-o-y terms, the industrial output dropped 0.2 percent in February, following
a downwardly revised 0.5 percent gain (from +0.8 percent) in the previous month. That marked the first annual decline since February 2021 (-5.4 percent).