Research >> Economics
Industrial production increased 1.3%
Capacity Utilization rate to 76.4%
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Industrial production increased 1.3 percent in October after a downwardly revised decline of 3.7 percent in September. The revision to September output resulted, in part, from a larger estimate of the impact of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike on the chemical industry. Manufacturing production, which dropped 3.7 percent in September, rose 0.6 percent in October. The output of mines advanced 6.1 percent, as most crude oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico were brought back online after the hurricanes. The output of utilities rose 0.4 percent.
Industrial production in September and October was substantially affected by the hurricanes and a strike in the commercial aircraft industry. Excluding these special factors, total industrial production is estimated to have fallen around 2/3 percent in both September and October. The hurricane-related disruptions, which are now estimated to have been larger than previously reported, lowered the change in total industrial production in September about 2-1/2 percentage points, and the return to operation in October of most of the affected facilities boosted the change in output about 2 percentage points. The strike in the commercial aircraft industry reduced industrial production 1/2 percentage point in September and an additional 0.1 percentage point in October.
At 107.3 percent of its 2002 average, total industrial production in October was 4.1 percent below its level of a year earlier. The capacity utilization rate for total industry rose to 76.4 percent in October, a level 4.6 percentage points below its average level from 1972 to 2007.
Posted: November 17, 2008 Monday 09:18 AM