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U.S. Industrial Production Unexpectedly Flat In April
(RTTNews) - With a rebound by utilities output offset by decreases by manufacturing and mining output, the Federal Reserve released a report on Thursday showing industrial production in the U.S. came in unchanged in the month of April.
The Fed said industrial production was unchanged in April after falling by 0.3 percent in March. Economists had expected industrial production to rise by 0.2 percent.
While utilities output surged by 3.3 percent in April after plunging by 6.2 percent in March, manufacturing and mining output fell by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
"[The] outlook for industrial production and the manufacturing sector has become less negative, at least temporarily, since the partial rollback of the tariffs on China," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.
She added, "However, the effective tariff rate is still relatively high, and we expect that and uncertainty about the future path of tariffs to weigh on industrial activity."
The Fed also said capacity utilization in the industrial sector edged down to 77.7 in April from 77.8 percent in March. Economists had expected capacity utilization to remain unchanged.
Capacity utilization in the mining and manufacturing sectors dipped to 90.2 percent and 76.8 percent, respectively, while capacity utilization in the utilities sector rose to 71.3 percent.
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