DDP
PrintIndustrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
Performance Evaluation of the Federal Reserve G.17 (419) Statistical Release — June 2014
I. Overview
The Federal Reserve statistical release "Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization" G.17 (419) is published monthly, about 15 days after the reference month ends; for example, preliminary estimates for May are released in mid-June. The release reports monthly measures of output (IP) for major market and industry groups in the industrial sector, which the Federal Reserve defines as the manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities industries. Monthly measures of capacity and capacity utilization for major industry groups are provided as well. More detailed industry data for these indicators are published concurrently in a supplement to the G.17. Data from both the G.17 and the supplement to the G.17 are made available online through the Federal Reserve's Data Download Program. The production and capacity indexes are expressed as percentages of output in 2007. The component IP and capacity indexes are aggregated into market and/or industry groups with weights that are derived from their proportion in the total value added of all industries. The release also includes gross values of industrial products expressed in billions of chained (2009) dollars, diffusion indexes of industrial production, and supplementary data on motor vehicle assemblies in millions of units. (The G.17 release and the supplement to the release are available on the Board's public website.)
The production indexes and utilization rates are widely reported in the media and are used by analysts in government, businesses, and universities to follow current developments and trends in real output and operating rates in the industrial sector. The production indexes are also used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to estimate manufacturing productivity and by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to estimate investment in computers for the national income and product accounts.
