by Calculated Risk on 1/17/2014 09:15:00 AM

From the Fed: Industrial production and Capacity Utilization

Industrial production rose 0.3 percent in December, its fifth consecutive monthly increase. For the fourth quarter as a whole, industrial production advanced at an annual rate of 6.8 percent, the largest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2010; gains were widespread across industries. Following increases of 0.6 percent in each of the previous two months, factory output rose 0.4 percent in December and was 2.6 percent above its year-earlier level. The production of mines moved up 0.8 percent; the index has advanced 6.6 percent over the past 12 months. The output of utilities fell 1.4 percent after three consecutive monthly gains. At 101.8 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in December was 3.7 percent above its year-earlier level and 0.9 percent above its pre-recession peak in December 2007. Capacity utilization for total industry moved up 0.1 percentage point to 79.2 percent, a rate 1.0 percentage point below its long-run (1972–2012) average.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows Capacity Utilization. This series is up 12.3 percentage points from the record low set in June 2009 (the series starts in 1967).

Capacity utilization at 79.2% is still 1.0 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2012 and below the pre-recession level of 80.8% in December 2007.

Note: y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

The second graph shows industrial production since 1967.

Industrial production increased 0.3% in December to 101.3. This is 22% above the recession low, and 0.9 percent above the pre-recession peak.

The monthly change for both Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization were at expectations, however previous months were revised up.