WASHINGTON: US industrial production rebounded in February as manufacturing output made its strongest gain since last August, the Federal Reserve said Monday.
Industrial output increased 0.6 percent following a revised 0.2 percent decline in January that was slightly less than previously estimated.
Analysts had forecast a scant 0.1 percent rise.
Manufacturing output surged 0.8 percent, almost wiping out January's 0.9 percent drop that had been partly due to extreme weather, the Fed said. Much of the wide swing month-over-month reflected "the subsequent return to more normal levels of production in February."
Production of utilities slipped 0.2 percent after a leap of 3.8 percent in January.
Mining output increased 0.3 percent, slower than the prior month's 0.5 percent gain.
"US factories seemed to make up for lost time, with output beating expectations handily in February," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
"This provides some hope that we are beginning to move past the period of weather-impacted activity."
Compared with a year ago, US industrial output was up 2.8 percent.
Industrial capacity utilization rose to 78.8 percent from 78.5 percent in January, but remained below the long-run average of 80.1 percent.
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