In May, industrial production expanded 6.1% over the same month last year, which was above April’s 5.9% increase. The print came in slightly above the 6.0% expansion that market analysts had expected and represented a three-month high. May’s expansion mainly reflected an acceleration in all the main categories of the index.
On a monthly basis, industrial production in May expanded 0.52% in seasonally-adjusted terms, which was slightly down from the 0.58% increase tallied in April. Nevertheless, as a result of the weak growth observed throughout this year, the trend continues to point downward. Annual average growth in industrial production ticked down from April’s 7.5% to 7.3% in May, which marked the lowest reading since 1990.
For 2015, FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect industrial production to grow 7.3%, which is down 0.6 percentage points from last month’s projection. In 2016, the panel sees industrial production growth declining to 7.1%.