U.S. Industrial Production Stagnates in August

The Federal Reserve System reported that U.S. industrial production remained unchanged in August, registering 0.0% growth. This stagnation missed economist forecasts of a 0.3% increase and followed a 0.2% rise in July.

The flat overall figure resulted from a 1.8% surge in utilities output and a 0.1% increase in mining output, which were offset by a 0.3% decline in manufacturing output. This manufacturing drop ended a seven-month streak of gains, with durable goods production specifically falling 0.5%.

Industrial capacity utilization remained steady at 76.3%, which was slightly below the 76.4% estimate and 3.1 percentage points below its long-run average.