U.S. Industrial Production Unexpectedly Drops 0.5% In April
15 Maggio 2019 - 11:46AM
RTTF2
Industrial production in the U.S. unexpectedly showed a notable
decrease in the month of April, according to a report released by
the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
The Fed said industrial production fell by 0.5 percent in April
following a revised 0.2 percent uptick in March.
Economists had expected production to come in unchanged compared
to the 0.1 percent dip originally reported for the previous
month.
The unexpected drop in production partly reflected a sharp
pullback in utilities output, which plunged by 3.5 percent in April
after jumping by 2.2 percent in March.
Manufacturing output also slumped by 0.5 percent in April after
coming in unchanged in the previous month.
On the other hand, the Fed said mining output surged up by 1.6
percent in April after falling by 0.4 percent in March.
"The weakness in industrial production, while worse than
expected in April, is consistent with an expected inventory
correction," said FTN Financial chief economist Chris Low.
The report also said capacity utilization for the industrial
sector dropped to 77.9 percent in April from a revised 78.5 percent
in March.
Economists had expected capacity utilization to edge down to
78.7 percent from the 78.8 percent originally reported for the
previous month.
Capacity utilization in the utilities and manufacturing sectors
dropped to 76.2 percent and 75.7 percent, respectively, while
capacity utilization in the mining sector rose to 91.4 percent.
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