Overall industrial production increased a seasonally adjusted 0.3% for December, according to a Federal Reserve report (link opens as PDF) released today.
After increasing a revised 1% for November, analyst estimates were spot-on for this month.
By major market groups, consumer goods production increased the most (0.5%), followed closely by materials (0.4%) and construction (0.4%). Business equipment was the only group in the red, down 0.5% for December.
Breaking production down by industries, mining advanced 0.8%, manufacturing increased 0.4%, and utilities dropped 1.4%. Analysts had expected a 0.3% increase for manufacturing.
Capacity utilization also beat estimates slightly, clocking in 0.1 points above estimates of a 79.1% rate.
Comparing December 2013 to December 2012, overall production is up 3.7%, manufacturing has increased 2.6%, and capacity utilization has expanded 1.8%.
Source: Federal Reserve.
