Industrial Production Falls 0.5% in April
Industrial production decreased 0.5% in April after having fallen 1.7% in March.
Production in manufacturing declined 0.3% in April and was 16% below its recent peak in December 2007. The decreases in manufacturing in April remained broadly based across industries.
Outside of manufacturing, the output of mines fell 3.2%, as oil and gas field drilling and support activities continued to drop. The output of utilities moved up 0.4%.
At 97.1% of its 2002 average, industrial output in April was 12.5% below its year-earlier level.
The capacity utilization rate for total industry fell further in April, to 69.1%, a low over the history of this series, which begins in 1967.
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