Industrial Production Rises 1% in July

Industrial production rose 1% in July, boosted by higher factory output, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday.

The increase followed a revised 0.1% downturn in June that had originally been reported as a 0.1% gain.

Factory output jumped 1.1%, led by a boost in automobile production, following the biggest decline in more than a year.

Economists had forecast a 0.5% gain in overall production, Bloomberg reported.

The share of industrial capacity in use rose to 74.8%, from 74.1%, the Fed said.

Manufacturing accounts for about an eighth of the U.S. economy and the factory sector is one of trucking’s largest and most important customers.