WASHINGTON — Industrial production decelerated in August as the pace of growth slowed to 0.2% from 0.6% in July, the Federal Reserve Board reported Wednesday. The gain matched economists’ expectations.
Industrial capacity utilization — a measure of factory usage — rose to 74.7% from 74.6%, and is 4.7 percentage points higher than a year ago. Economists expected utilization to reach 75%, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Industrial production for July was revised lower to a 0.6% increase from the 1.0% jump initially reported.
“Much of the tailwind for production created by inventory restocking is behind us,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, said in a research note. “Future production gains will need to be supported by a reacceleration in domestic demand (which is expected to be tepid) and additional gains in exports.”
