A report released by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday showed U.S. industrial production increased by more than expected in the month of July.<\/p>\n
The Fed said industrial production climbed by 0.6 percent in July following a revised unchanged reading in June.<\/p>\n
Economists had expected industrial production to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.2 percent dip originally reported for the previous month.<\/p>\n
“The 0.6% m\/m rise in industrial production in July was much stronger than we expected and provides another clear sign that the economy<\/span> is still in expansionary territory,” said Andrew Hunter, Senior U.S. Economist at Capital Economics. <\/p>\n He added, “That said, the likely drag on manufacturing from the impending global economic downturn means that resilience of production may not last for long.”<\/p>\n The bigger than expected increase in industrial production came as manufacturing output advanced by 0.7 percent in July after falling by 0.4 percent for two straight months.<\/p>\n Mining output also climbed by 0.7 percent in July after jumping by 2.0 percent in June, while utilities output slid by 0.8 percent after slipping by 0.3 percent.<\/p>\n The report also showed capacity utilization in the industrial sector rose to 80.3 percent in July from a revised 79.9 percent in June.<\/p>\n Economists had expected capacity utilization to inch up to 80.1 percent from the 80.0 percent originally reported for the previous month.<\/p>\n Capacity utilization in the manufacturing and mining sectors edged up to 79.8 percent and 88.0 percent, respectively, while capacity utilization in the utilities sector fell to 74.5 percent. <\/p>\n