Industrial Production Inched Up 0.1% in October

Washington, DC, November 16, 2018-Industrial production edged up 0.1% in October, as a gain for manufacturing outweighed decreases elsewhere, according to the Federal Reserve. 

As a result of upward revisions primarily in mining, the overall index is now reported to have advanced at an annual rate of 4.7% in the third quarter, appreciably above the gain of 3.3% reported initially. 

Hurricanes lowered the level of industrial production in both September and October, but their effects appear to be less than 0.1% per month. 

In October, manufacturing output rose 0.3% for its fifth consecutive monthly increase, while the indexes for mining and for utilities declined 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively. 

At 109.1% of its 2012 average, total industrial production was 4.1% higher in October than it was a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector was 78.4%, a rate that is 1.4 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2017) average.