US industrial production beat expectations in February

The Federal Reserve said today that industrial production in the United States rose by 1.2% in February versus 0.1% in January and analysts had expected industrial production to record 0.6% in February. On an annual basis, industrial production rose by 7.4% in the twelve months to February compared to February 2021, and production in car factories declined by 3.5% in February, which is the third consecutive monthly decline with the global shortage of electronic components. Capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector, a measure of how fully businesses are using their resources, rose 0.9% to 78.0% in February, and the total energy use of the industrial sector rose 0.3% to 77.6% in February.