(RTTNews) – Industrial production in the U.S. edged slightly higher in the month of June, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve on Friday.
The Fed said industrial production crept up by 0.1 percent in June, matching the uptick seen in May. Economists had expected industrial production to rise by 0.2 percent.
The report showed both mining and utilities output grew by 0.4 percent during the month, while manufacturing output was unchanged.
At 102.6 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in June was 1.1 percent above its year-earlier level, the Fed said.
“The latest reading wasn’t weak enough to change our baseline forecast for industrial production, which we recently revised higher to account for the strength in AI capex,” said Bernard Yaros, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.
He added, “Renewed hostilities between the US and Iran are the biggest risk to the outlook, as it would create uncertainty for businesses, threaten the pipeline of AI goods, and potentially derail an inventory restocking cycle.”
The Fed also said capacity utilization in the industrial sector came in at 76.1 percent in June, unchanged from a downwardly revised figure in May.
Economists had expected capacity utilization to come in unchanged compared to the 76.2 percent originally reported for the previous month.
Capacity utilization in the mining and utilities sectors rose to 87.4 percent and 69.5 percent, respectively, while capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector edged down to 75.7 percent.
