Industrial Production Down 0.6% in March, 2.2% for Q1

Washington, DC, April 15, 2016—Industrial production decreased 0.6% in March for a second month in a row, according to the Federal Reserve.

For the first quarter as a whole, industrial production fell at an annual rate of 2.2%. A substantial portion of the overall decrease in March resulted from declines in the indexes for mining and utilities, which fell 2.9% and 1.2%, respectively; in addition, manufacturing output fell 0.3%.

The sizable decrease in mining production continued the industry's recent downward trajectory; the index has fallen in each of the past seven months, at an average pace of 1.6% per month. At 103.4% of its 2012 average, total industrial production in March was 2.0% below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.5 percentage point in March to 74.8%, a rate that is 5.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2015) average.