On Friday, the Federal Reserve reported a modest rise in US industrial production for the month of February. This upturn echoes a revitalization in manufacturing and mining sectors, previously impacted by poor weather in January.
The Federal Reserve stated that industrial production marginally increased by 0.1% in February, following a downwardly revised decline of 0.5% in the previous month. This figure challenged the expectations of economists, who predicted no change from the 0.1% drop first reported for January.
The rise in production was propelled by the resurgence of manufacturing, which increased by 0.8% in February following a 1.1% dip in January, alongside a 2.2% surge in mining output, succeeding a January dive of 2.9%.
Conversely, these advances were largely counterbalanced by considerable reductions in utilities output. February saw a 7.5% decrease in utilities output, according to the Federal Reserve, following a 7.4% increase in January, attributed to above-average temperatures for the period.
Additionally, the Federal Reserve reported that February's capacity utilization for the industrial sector held steady at 78.3%, maintaining the downwardly revised figure from January, again confounding economists who anticipated no deviation from the 78.5% originally reported.
In specific terms, capacity utilization rose in the manufacturing and mining sector to levels of 77.0% and 93.8% respectively, while the utility sector saw a significant drop to 67.8% capacity utilization.
