New York manufacturing hit as overall US production expands
NEW YORK manufacturers came in for a walloping during July, in a month where consumer prices edged up, and industrial production as a whole crept up, according to a tranche of data released yesterday by various US official bodies.
The headline index for manufacturing in the Empire State collapsed 13 percentage points to
-5.9, diving below zero for the first time in 10 months, a survey from the New York Fed showed. Though the index for shipments remained positive, it fell six points to 4.1, while new orders shrunk for the second month in a row.
This went against the trend for the USA as a whole, whose industrial production grew 0.6 per cent in July, which compared well with the 0.1 per cent it inched up in both May and June. Despite this increase, industrial production remained two per cent lower than the average for 2007, a testament to the length of the current slump, said the data from the Federal Reserve.
These reports came as consumer prices grew 1.4 per cent over the 12 months to July, no change over the previous two months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.