The Federal Reserve announced Friday that in the US, industrial production fell 1.2 percent in August after having risen 0.5 percent in July. The decline was partially driven by Hurricane Isaac in August, which restrained output in the Gulf Coast region, reducing the rate of change in total industrial production by about 0.3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, manufacturing output slowed 0.7 percent in August after a 0.4 percent gain in June and July. Precautionary shutdowns of oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in advance of the hurricane contributed to a drop of 1.8 percent in the output of mines for August. The output of utilities declined 3.6 percent. At 96.8 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in August was 2.8 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry moved down 1 percentage point to 78.2 percent, a rate 2.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2011) average.