Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

REVISION OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION

On November 7, 2005, the Federal Reserve Board issued its annual revisions to the index of industrial production (IP) and to the related measures of capacity and capacity utilization. The base year for the indexes of industrial production, capacity, and electric power use was advanced to 2002. Production indexes for twenty industries that had relied on electric power use as a monthly indicator were revised to use productionworker hours for the period 1997 to present.

The revisions to the IP index were derived principally from information contained in annual reports issued by the Census Bureau--namely, the 2003 Annual Survey of Manufactures, the revised data from the 2002 Census of Manufactures, and selected 2004 Current Industrial Reports. Annual data on minerals (except fuels) for 2003 and 2004 from the U.S. Geological Survey and updated deflators from the Bureau of Economic Analysis were also introduced. The updating also included revisions to the monthly indicator for each industry (either physical product data or production-worker hours) and revisions to seasonal factors.

Capacity and capacity utilization were revised to incorporate data from the Census Bureau�s 2004 Survey of Plant Capacity, which covers manufacturing, and new data on capacity from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other organizations.

The revision is available on the Board�s website at www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17. The revised data are also available on 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 17, 2006