US industrial output slows in December

A downturn in the US manufacturing sector in the final month of 2021, notably the hard-hit auto sector, caused overall industrial output to dip in December, the Federal Reserve said Friday.

Industrial production slipped 0.1 per cent, surprising economists expecting a modest increase, as manufacturing fell 0.3 per cent in the month, according to the data.

Amid the ongoing shortage of key computer chips that has hampered auto manufacturing, motor vehicles and parts fell 1.3 per cent in December and was about six percent lower than a year earlier, the Fed said.

That decline ended a two-month streak of gains and offered "a sign that the sector's travails are far from over," said Kathy Bostjancic of Oxford Economics.