Industrial production in the United States slowed down its month-on-month growth in May, posting an increase of 0.2%, which placed it below the 0.5% expected by analysts and market consultants.
However, in the year-on-year comparison, the industry showed an improvement of 5.8%.
The data was released by the Federal Reserve (FED), which in its report also revealed a contraction of 0.1% in manufacturing production, in particular.
Within the manufacturing industry, the sectors with the greatest decreases were wood (-2.6%), machinery (-2.1%) and electronic and computer products (-1.8%), according to the France Presse agency. .
Car manufacturing – which suffered last year from the global shortage of semiconductors – also slowed in May, having grown 1.1% against 3.3% in the previous month.
Also, among durable goods, the production of household appliances decreased by 2.5%.
Meanwhile, generation of public services (water, electricity) slowed sharply to 1.9% after 5.5% in April (revised upward), due to the 4.5% drop in gas production and to the slowdown in electricity production (1.9% after 5.2% in the previous month).
With regard to industrial production for April, the Federal Reserve revised upwards the previously assigned 1.1% month-on-month increase and placed it at 1.4%.
In this way, the month-on-month result for May was the lowest of the year, since in January it had grown by 1.4%, in February by 0.5%, in March 0.9%, in addition to the aforementioned 1.4% of April.
Notwithstanding, the monthly IPI accumulates five consecutive months with positive records, its last fall being in December of last year, when it fell 0.1%.
In the year-on-year comparison, for its part, the indicator has risen for seven months in a row, showing its last contraction in October 2021 (-2.2%).
