According to the official report unveiled by the Federal Reserve, industrial production in the United States was unchanged in February following a 0.1% decrease in January. Economists had expected the output to climb by 0.3%.
January’s figure was revised from a 0.3% decline.
At the same time, manufacturing output, the component that accounts for 75% of the total industrial production, rose by 0.5% in February, for the sixth month in a row. The moderate growth indicates a steady recovery in the manufacturing sector.
However, weak growth of the overall industrial output was due to the decline in the electricity output. In February, it dropped by 5.7% after falling by 5.8% in the previous month because of the unexpectedly warm weather.
Production in the mining industry showed an increase of 2.7% after climbing by 2.2% in January.
Meanwhile, the car and auto parts production rose by 0.8%, while the output of construction materials rose by 1.3%. Production of equipment grew by 0.7%, while consumer goods output fell by 0.4%.
In February, capacity use decreased by 0.1% to 75.4 from 75.5%. The industrial sector accounts for about 12% of the US GDP.
According to economists, growing US producer prices for the fourth month in a row will make inflation accelerate gradually. Producer prices rose by 0.3% in February after climbing by 0.6% in January. This is the highest level since September 2012.
