US: Industrial production rose 0.7% in April

Industrial production rose 0.7 percent in April for its third consecutive monthly increase. The rates of change for industrial production for previous months were revised downward, on net; for the first quarter, output is now reported to have advanced 2.3 percent at an annual rate. 

Key highlights:

   •  After being unchanged in March, manufacturing output rose 0.5 percent in April. 
   •  The indexes for mining and utilities moved up 1.1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively. 
   •  At 107.3 percent of its 2012 average, total industrial production in April was 3.5 percent higher than it was a year earlier. 
   •  Capacity utilization for the industrial sector climbed 0.4 percentage point in April to 78.0 percent, a rate that is 1.8 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2017) average.