U.S. industrial production rose in January, according to the latest monthly report from the Federal Reserve — including the largest increase in manufacturing output in nearly a year.
The Fed Board’s Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report found that industrial production rose by 0.7% last month, and that manufacturing output climbed by 0.6% — the biggest jump since last February.
Durable manufacturing increased by 0.8% with growth in “nearly all component industries,” Fed analysts wrote. The largest increases were in machinery, electronics, non-metallic mineral products, motor vehicles and parts, and miscellaneous durable goods.
Nondurable manufacturing output, meanwhile, was up by 0.4% as increases in chemicals, plastics and rubber, and paper offset declines elsewhere.
Capacity utilization climbed to 76.2 percent, although that rate is more than 3 percentage points below the average rate since 1972.
