RSS Feed by Calculated Risk on 7/17/2012 09:15:00 AM
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Industrial Production increased 0.4% in June, Capacity Utilization increased
From the Fed: Industrial production and Capacity Utilization
Industrial production increased 0.4 percent in June after having declined 0.2 percent in May. In the manufacturing sector, output advanced 0.7 percent in June and reversed a decrease of 0.7 percent in May. In the second quarter of 2012, manufacturing output rose at an annual rate of 1.4 percent, a marked deceleration from its strong gain of 9.8 percent in the first quarter. The largest contribution to the increase in the second quarter came from motor vehicles and parts, which climbed 18.2 percent; excluding motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing output edged up 0.1 percent. Outside of manufacturing, the output of mines advanced 0.7 percent in June, while the output of utilities decreased 1.9 percent. For the quarter, however, the output of mines fell at an annual rate of 1.2 percent, while the output of utilities rose 14.9 percent. At 97.4 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in June was 4.7 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry moved up 0.2 percentage point in June to 78.9 percent, a rate 1.4 percentage points below its long-run (1972--2011) average.
Click on graph for larger image.This graph shows Capacity Utilization. This series is up 12.1 percentage points from the record low set in June 2009 (the series starts in 1967).
Capacity utilization at 78.9% is still 1.4 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2010 and below the pre-recession levels of 80.6% 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 in June to 97.4. This is 16.7% above the recession low, but still 3.3% below the pre-recession peak.
The consensus is for Industrial Production to increase 0.3% in June, and for Capacity Utilization to increase to 79.2%. The increase IP was slightly above expectations, but Capacity Utilization was below expectations.
