Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

REVISION OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION

On December 22, 2004, the Federal Reserve Board issued its annual revision to the index of industrial production (IP), the related measures of capacity and capacity utilization, and the data on industrial use of electric power. Comprehensive source data from the Census Bureau's 2002 Economic Census were incorporated into the production database. In addition to these data, the revised IP indexes reflect data from selected editions of the Census Bureau's 2002 and 2003 Current Industrial Reports. Annual data from the U.S. Geological Survey regarding metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels) for 2002 and 2003 were also introduced. The updating also included revisions to the monthly indicator for each industry (either physical product data, production-worker hours, or electric power usage) and revisions to seasonal factors.

Capacity and capacity utilization were revised to incorporate preliminary data from the Census Bureau's 2003 Survey of Plant Capacity, which covers manufacturing, along with new data on capacity from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other organizations. The statistics on the industrial use of electric power incorporated additional information received from utilities for the past few years and included available data from the 2002 Economic Census.

The revision is available on the Board's website at www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17. The revised data are also available through the website of the Department of Commerce. Further information on these revisions is available from the Board's Industrial Output Section (telephone 202-452-3197).

Statistical releases

Last update: January 14, 2005, 9:15 AM