The Federal Reserve reported on Friday the U.S. industrial production rose 0.7 percent m-o-m in April, following a revised 2.4 percent m-o-m gain in March (originally a 1.4 percent m-o-m advance).

Economists had forecast industrial production would increase 1.0 percent m-o-m in April.

According to the report, the output of utilities surged 2.6 percent m-o-m in April, while mining production grew 0.7 percent m-o-m and manufacturing output rose 0.4 percent m-o-m, despite a drop in motor vehicle assemblies that principally resulted from shortages of semiconductors.

Capacity utilization for the industrial sector increased 0.5 percentage point m-o-m to 74.9 percent in April. That was 0.1 percentage point below economists’ forecast and 4.7 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2020) average.

In y-o-y terms, the industrial output jumped 16.5 percent in April, following an unrevised 1.0 percent increase in the prior month, but it was 2.7 percent below its pre-pandemic level