US industrial production rises in June on gains in automobile manufacturing

Industrial production in the United States rose during the month of June, beating market expectations and tracking gains in automobile manufacturing and utility output, indicating that the economy is recovering towards the end of the second quarter.

Industrial output increased 0.6 percent last month, the strongest gain since July 2015, after an upwardly revised 0.3 percent decline in May. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast industrial production to rise 0.2 percent last month.

Manufacturing output rose 0.4 percent in June, while production of consumer goods rose 1.1 percent during the same period. Production of business equipment rose 0.7 percent after a 0.3 percent fall in May.

The index for utilities rose 2.4 percent after a 0.9 percent drop in May, while mining output rose 0.2 percent, a slight softening from its May increase of 0.3 percent. With overall output up, the percentage of industrial capacity in use rose to 75.4 percent in June from an unrevised 74.9 percent in May.

Meanwhile, industrial production had peaked in November 2014 but failed to touch that level as the mining sector collapsed and manufacturing broadly levelled off, reports said.