US manufacturing output drops in July
U.S. manufacturing output dropped in July, ending a run of two months of growth.
The Federal Reserve on Thursday said manufacturing production shrank 0.4% last month, a steeper drop than the 0.1% decline expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Overall industrial output was down 0.2% in July, after analysts had anticipated a 0.1% gain.
The data may add to concerns about the strength of the U.S. factory sector amid lingering concerns about a slowing global economy. The July decline was the largest since April.
Manufacturing output is down over 1.5% since December 2018, the Fed said.
In July, the decline in factory output was broadbased across a number of sectors, including wood products, machinery and nonmetallic mineral products, according to the Fed.
Mining output fell 1.8% in July, which the Fed attributed to a sharp but temporary decline in oil extraction in the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Barry. Despite the decline, mining output is still up 5.5% over the last year.
Output for utilities was up 3.1% after falling a similar amount in June.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, dipped slightly to 75.4% in July.
Capacity utilization across all industries, including utilities and mining, was down slightly to 77.5%, and now stands 2.3 percentage points below its 1972-2018 average.
Officials at the Fed tend to look at capacity use measures as an indication of how much more the economy may be able to grow before inflation becomes a concern.
(Source: Reuters)
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