WASHINGTON: US industrial production was unchanged in October, weighed down by a decline in utilities output, data from the Federal Reserve showed on Wednesday.
Output for September was revised to show a 0.2 percent decline in output rather than a 0.1 percent increase. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast industrial production rising 0.2 percent in October.
Manufacturing output rose 0.2 percent in October after rising by a similar margin in September, less than the 0.3 percent rise expected by economists. Utilities production slid 2.6 percent as warmer-than-normal temperatures reduced demand for heating.
It had fallen 3.0 percent in September. Mining production, which has been hurt by low oil prices, was up 2.1 percent, posting its largest gain since March 2014.
Industrial capacity utilization edged down to 75.3 percent. Officials at the Fed tend to look at capacity use as a signal of how much "slack" there is in the economy and how much room there is for growth to accelerate before it becomes inflationary.
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