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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsEconomyIndustrial Production Hits Forecast, Weather Weighs Down Demand for Utilities

Industrial Production Hits Forecast, Weather Weighs Down Demand for Utilities

Industry production 4.0 and technology concept, depicting factory production on a conveyor belt with factory operational workers in uniform. (Photo: AdobeStock)

Manufacturing Output Posted the Largest Gain Since February 2018

Industry production 4.0 and technology concept, depicting factory production on a conveyor belt with factory operational workers in uniform. (Photo: AdobeStock)
Industry production 4.0 and technology concept, depicting factory production on a conveyor belt with factory operational workers in uniform. (Photo: AdobeStock)

Industrial production rose 0.3% in December after increasing by 0.4% in November, meeting the consensus forecast.

For the fourth quarter (Q4), total industrial production has risen at an annual rate of 3.8%.

In December, manufacturing output gained a solid 1.1%, its largest gain since February 2018. The output of mines also rose solidly at 1.5%.

However, warmer-than-usual temperatures lowered the demand for heating, pushing down the index for utilities by a whopping 6.3%.

At 109.9% of its 2012 average, total industrial production was still 4.0% higher in December than it was a year earlier.

Capacity utilization for the industrial sector rose 0.1 percentage point in December to 78.7 percent, a rate that is 1.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2017) average.

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PPD Business, the economy-reporting arm of People's Pundit Daily, is "making sense of current events." We are a no-holds barred, news reporting pundit of, by, and for the people.

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