Factories, mines and utilities boosted production by 0.3% in February after a revised 0.1% increase in January, the Federal Reserve said March 15. The February report on industrial production was slightly below the 0.4% expected by Wall Street economists. Manufacturing output rose 0.5%, the output of mines advanced 0.2% and the output of utilities fell 1.1%. Capacity utilization, which can be an indication of inflationary pressures, rose to 79.4% from a revised 79.2% in January.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005
