Industrial Production Rose 0.3% in September

Washington, DC, October 17, 2017-Industrial production rose 0.3% in September.

The rates of change for July and August were notably revised; the current estimate for July, a decrease of 0.1%, was 0.5 percentage point lower than previously reported, while the estimate for August, a decrease of 0.7%, was 0.2 percentage point higher than before.

The estimates for manufacturing, mining, and utilities were each revised lower in July. The continued effects of Hurricane Harvey and, to a lesser degree, the effects of Hurricane Irma combined to hold down the growth in total production in September by 1/4 percentage point.

For the third quarter as a whole, industrial production fell 1.5% at an annual rate; excluding the effects of the hurricanes, the index would have risen at least 1/2%. Manufacturing output edged up 0.1% in September but fell 2.2% at an annual rate in the third quarter.

The indexes for mining and utilities in September rose 0.4% and 1.5%, respectively. At 104.6% of its 2012 average, total industrial production in September was 1.6% above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector increased 0.2 percentage point in September to 76.0%, a rate that is 3.9 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2016) average.