WASHINGTON – U.S. industrial production last month dipped 0.5 percent, to 111.9 points (2002 = 100) erasing December’s revised gains of 0.5 percent, the Federal Reserve today reported. Overall industrial output was 2.6 percent above that in January 2006.
Output of utilities rose 2.3 percent, as winter weather arrived, while manufacturing-sector output fell 0.7 percent, dragged down by a 6-percent decline in production of motor vehicles and parts.
Capacity utilization, a measure of the proportion of plants that are in use, fell to 81.2 points from December’s 81.8. But it was still was 0.1 points above its year-ago level and 0.2 points above its 1972 to 2006 average. Overall industrial capacity grew 2.4 percent over the past year, the report said.
“Manufacturers are going through a process of bringing supplies into line with demand,” Brian Bethune, an economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass., told Bloomberg News, “and it could be that inventories will weigh on growth this quarter.”
The full release is available at www.federalreserve.gov.
