Data from the Federal Reserve showed Tuesday that US industrial production rose 0.4 percent in September after having falling 1.4 percent in August. For Q3 as a whole, industrial production declined at an annual rate of 0.4 percent. Manufacturing output increased 0.2 percent in September but moved down at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in Q3.
Production at mines advanced 0.9 percent in September, and the output of utilities moved up 1.5 percent. Roughly 0.3 percentage point of the decline in overall industrial production in August reflected the effect of precautionary idling of production in late August along the Gulf of Mexico in anticipation of Hurricane Isaac, and part of the rise in September is a result of the subsequent resumption of activity at idled facilities. Capacity utilization for total industry moved up 0.3 percentage point to 78.3 percent, a rate 2 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2011) average.