Industrial Production Slipped 0.3% in December

Washington, DC, January 17, 2020-Industrial production declined 0.3% in December, as a decrease of 5.6% for utilities outweighed increases of 0.2% for manufacturing and 1.3% for mining, reports the Federal Reserve. 

The drop for utilities resulted from a large decrease in demand for heating, as unseasonably warm weather in December followed unseasonably cold weather in November. For the fourth quarter as a whole, total industrial production moved down at an annual rate of 0.5%. At 109.4% of its 2012 average, total industrial production was 1.0% lower in December than it was a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector fell 0.4 percentage point in December to 77.0%, a rate that is 2.8 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2018) average.