Your Economy (No Politics)

[Bullwinkle]

Industrial output beats forecast
December 15, 2005: 10:16 AM EST


November output up 0.7%, boosted by post-hurricane recovery; expectation had been for 0.5% rise.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Output from factories, mines and utilities rose 0.7 percent in November, pushed higher by a post-hurricane recovery in the petrochemical and energy sectors, a Federal Reserve report showed Thursday.

The reading outpaced economists' expectations for a climb of 0.5 percent in November output.

October output was revised to a 1.3 percent gain from a previously reported 0.9 percent increase, on the back of an upward revision to the air conditioner index, the Fed said.

Manufacturing production edged up 0.3 percent in November after a rise of 1.8 percent the month before.

Closely watched business capacity use, a measure of how fast industry is running, rose to a rate of 80.2 percent in November after coming in at a revised 79.8 percent in October.

Analysts had expected capacity utilization to climb to 79.8 percent from October's original reading of 79.5 percent.

Manufacturing capacity utilization was 79.4 percent in November, unchanged from the month before.


© Reuters 2005