WASHINGTON — Industrial production continued to expand in June, but the 0.1% gain was the smallest in four months, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday.
Capacity utilization, a measure of factory activity, held steady at 74.1%,
Manufacturing output fell 0.4% in June to post its first decline in four months. Durable goods manufacturing increased 0.1%. Utilities’ output surged 2.7% on warmer-than-average seasonal temperatures.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected industrial production to fall 0.1% and for capacity utilization to be 74.1%, according to the median estimate.
“Producers are starting to curtail production after rebuilding inventories that had overshot on the downside earlier in the year,” Diane Swonk, chief economist of Mesirow Financial, said in a research note. “The recent weakness in retail sales will tend to reinforce this trend over the summer.”
