Industrial production and capacity utilization for August 2000

Released for publication September 15

Industrial production posted a 0.3 percent gain in August and was unchanged in July; the level of output in July was initially estimated to have risen 0.4 percent. Manufacturing output inched up 0.1 percent in both July and August, a slower rate than in

the first half of the year, when increases in manufacturing production averaged a little more than 'h percent per month. Mining output was unchanged in August, while production at utilities surged 4.0 percent. Capacity utilization for total industry rose 0.1 percentage point, to 82.3 percent, a level 0.3 percentage point above its 1967-99 average.

MARKET GROUPS

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Industrial production and capacity utilization

After having declined 0.3 percent in July, the output of consumer goods rose 0.5 percent in August; production in the durable and nondurable goods sectors posted comparable gains. Within consumer durables, an increase in the output of automotive products, mainly motor vehicle assemblies and replacement tires, more than offset a decline in the production of other durable goods. Among other durable goods, a gain in the production of household appliances reversed a small portion of the sizable decline in July, but the output of carpeting and furniture and of miscellaneous durable goods fell. Within nondurable consumer goods, energy products jumped 3.7 percent in August, led by gains in residential sales of electricity and fuel oil. The output of non-energy products ticked up just 0. 1 percent.