Industrial Production Rose 0.5% in March

Washington, DC, April 17, 2018-Industrial production rose 0.5% in March after increasing 1.0% in February; the index advanced 4.5% at an annual rate for the first quarter as a whole, according to the Federal Reserve.

After having climbed 1.5% in February, manufacturing production edged up 0.1% in March. Mining output rose 1.0%, mostly as a result of gains in oil and gas extraction and in support activities for mining.

The index for utilities jumped 3.0% after being suppressed in February by warmer-than-normal temperatures. At 107.2% of its 2012 average, total industrial production was 4.3% higher in March than it was a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector moved up 0.3 percentage point in March to 78.0%, a rate that is 1.8 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2017) average.