The Federal Reserve reported on Tuesday that the U.S. industrial production edged down 0.1 percent m-o-m in March, following an upwardly revised 0.1 percent m-o-m increase in February (originally flat m-o-m performance). 

Economists had forecast industrial production would rise 0.2 percent m-o-m in March. 

According to the report, manufacturing production was unchanged m-o-m in March after dropping in both January and February. At the same time, the index for utilities increased 0.2 percent m-o-m, while mining output decreased 0.8 percent m-o-m.

Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.2 percentage point m-o-m in March to 78.8 percent. That was 0.3 percentage points below economists’ forecast and 1.0 percentage point below its long-run (1972–2018) average. 

In y-o-y terms, the industrial output rose 2.8 percent in March, following an unrevised 3.6 percent advance in the prior month. That marked the slowest rate of growth in industrial production since May 2018.