The Federal Reserve reported on Wednesday that the U.S. industrial production fell 0.5 percent m-o-m in April, following a revised 0.2 percent m-o-m increase in March (originally 0.1 percent m-o-m drop). That was the biggest decline in industrial production since May 2018.

Economists had forecast industrial production would be unchanged m-o-m in April.

According to the report, manufacturing production decreased 0.5 percent m-o-m in April after being unchanged in March. At the same time, the index for mining rose 1.6 percent m-o-m, while the index for utilities fell 3.5 percent m-o-m.

Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.6 percentage point m-o-m in April to 77.9 percent. That was 0.8 percentage points below economists’ forecast and 1.9 percentage point below its long-run (1972–2018) average.

In y-o-y terms, the industrial output rose 0.9 percent in April, following a downwardly revised 2.3 percent surge in the prior month. That marked the slowest rate of growth in industrial production since February 2017.