Hot Economic News Releases

Industrial production increased in the U.S. in June, against all expectations, above-normal seasonal temperatures have boosted the use of air conditioning and therefore the production of electricity, official statistics show the Federal Reserve.

Production was up 0.1% in June while economists and analysts polled by Reuters had forecast an average decline of 0.1%.

The May figure was confirmed at 1.3%.

For the second quarter as a whole, industrial production has emerged up 6.6% yoy, lower than the 7.0% increase recorded during the first three months of the year.

The production sector of utilities rose 2.7%, higher than the Fed said the sharp rise in the use of air conditioning.

Manufacturing output fell for its 0.4%.

The utilization of production capacity has remained stable at 74.1%, but remains below 6.5 points to its average over the period 1972-2009.

The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring these statistics to assess the possible inflationary pressures, which could affect its monetary policy.

The oil has closed lower Wednesday on the physical market in New York after the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Federal Reserve.

The text of the Fed shows that its members say they have to be ready to take further measures to support the economy if the climate deteriorates.

The contract on August U.S. light crude ended on a down 11 cents, or 0.14%, to 77.04 dollars a barrel.