Sluggish Economic News

We got some sluggish economic news this morning. The Federal Reserve said that industrial production was flat last month, and the Commerce Department said that housing starts fell by 5.8%. Manufacturing dropped by 0.2%.

For industrial production, economists were expecting an increase of 0.3%. The weakness is probably due to the problems in Europe. Capacity utilization, which tells us how much of a plant is being used, now stands at 76.7%.

The drop in manufacturing output, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy, in March was the first since November. The figure was restrained by a decrease in consumer durable goods such as furniture and appliances. Construction supply production slumped 1.3 percent in March after a 1.9 percent jump.

Still, first-quarter factory output climbed at a 10.4 percent annual rate, the most in almost two years, the Fed said.

Auto production rose in March at a slower pace, climbing 0.6 percent after a 0.8 percent rise. Factory output minus production of vehicles and parts fell 0.3 percent in March.

Posted by on April 17th, 2012 at 10:03 am


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