U.S. Industrial Production Climbs More Than Expected In July

(RTTNews) - With manufacturing output showing a notable rebound, the Federal Reserve released a report on Friday showing that U.S. industrial production increased by more than expected in the month of July.

The report said industrial production climbed by 0.6 percent in July after inching up by 0.1 percent in June. Economists had expected production to increase by about 0.4 percent.

The bigger than expected increase in production came as manufacturing output increased by 0.8 percent in July after dipping by 0.3 percent in the previous month.

The Fed said the rebound in manufacturing output was primarily because of an increase in production of motor vehicle assemblies.

Mining output also edged up by 0.2 percent in July after rising 0.7 percent in June, while utilities output pulled back by 1.0 percent after jumping 2.3 percent.

The report also said the capacity utilization rate rose to 78.0 percent in July from 77.7 percent in the previous month. Economists had expected a capacity utilization rate of 78.1 percent.

Capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector climbed to 76.2 percent, while capacity utilization in the mining and utilities sectors fell to 84.4 percent and 79.1 percent, respectively.