U.S. industrial production
in January rose the most in six months, led by gains in assembly
of autos and parts, economists said they expect the Federal
Reserve to report today.
Production at factories, mines and utilities probably
increased 0.3 percent last month after a 0.2 percent drop in
December, a survey of economists found. It would be the second
monthly rise in the Fed’s index of industrial output since July,
when a seven-month advance ended.
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The expected January gain would be in line with a recent
survey showing that factories increased production for a third
straight month, economists said. The January decline in jobs at
producers was the smallest in six months. Manufacturing, which
accounts for a seventh of the economy, has tracked the uneven
recovery as companies, wary that a war with Iraq would cause
growth to slow, stock just enough goods to meet demand.
A rise in January production “may suggest at the minimum
that manufacturing is stabilizing and that inventories have gotten
down to very lean levels,” said William Sullivan, senior
economist at Morgan Stanley in Jersey City, New Jersey. “This
will support the recovery.”
The Fed is to release its industrial production report at
9:15 a.m. Washington time. The expectation of a 0.3 percent
increase is based on the median of 62 forecasts in a Bloomberg
News survey of economists.
Companies probably put 75.6 percent of capacity into use last
month, little changed from 75.4 percent the previous month, based
on the median of 58 forecasts in the Bloomberg survey. Capacity
use reached an 18-year low of 74.6 percent in December 2001. In
the five years through 2000, when the economy was expanding, the
ratio averaged almost 83 percent.
BLoomberg News
