Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board released its annual revision to the index of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization on March 27, 2009. The revision affected the data from January 1972 through February 2009; most of the changes were for the period beginning in 2004 (the index levels for IP, but not the rates of change, may have been changed before 1972 to maintain consistency with the revised indexes for 1972 and after). The revised IP indexes incorporated data from selected editions of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 Current Industrial Reports. Detailed data from the 2007 Economic Census, however, were not available. Annual data from the U.S. Geological Survey regarding metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels) for 2007 were incorporated. Utilization rates were updated to incorporate data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity through 2008 as well as data from other government and trade sources.

The published revision release and revised data are 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 the revision can be obtained from the Board's Industrial Output Section (telephone number 202-452-3197).