Industrial Production Rose 0.6% in February

Washington, DC, March 17, 2020-Industrial production rose 0.6% in February after falling 0.5% in January, according to the Federal Reserve. 

Manufacturing output edged up 0.1% in February; excluding a large gain for motor vehicles and parts and a large drop for civilian aircraft, factory output was unchanged. The index for mining declined 1.5%, but the index for utilities jumped 7.1%, as temperatures returned to more typical levels following an unseasonably warm January. At 109.6% of its 2012 average, the level of total industrial production in February was unchanged from a year earlier.

Capacity utilization for the industrial sector increased 0.4 percentage point in February to 77.0%, a rate that is 2.8 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2019) average.