U.S. Industrial Production Climbs Much More Than Expected In December

(RTTNews) - Industrial production in the U.S. grew by much more than expected in the month of December, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve on Friday.

The Fed said industrial production climbed by 0.4 percent in December, matching an upwardly revised increase in November.

Economists had expected industrial production to inch up by 0.1 percent compared to the 0.2 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month.

The bigger than expected increase in industrial production partly reflected a surge by utilities output, which shot up by 2.6 percent in December after dipping by 0.3 percent in November.