US industrial production leaps past analyst expectations in September
US industrial production has jumped up by 0.6 per cent in September.
Analysts had expected production to rise at the same 0.4 per cent rate as it did in August.
Underlying indicators were more mixed, with manufacturing output rising by just 0.1 per cent. Capacity utilisation rose from 77.9 per cent to 78.3 per cent, its highest rate since July 2008.
Paul Dales, senior US economist at Capital Economics, says that the "figures aren't as good as they look, but at least they suggest that the economy had some momentum ahead of October's government shutdown".
Dales says that the October figures are likely to be weak as a result of the temporary shutdown.
The data from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve shows the volume of production of US industries.