US industry output up 0.7% last month

Washington: US industrial output grew by a stronger-than-expected 0.7% in February, as US firms operated at their fastest pace since August 2001, the Federal Reserve said in a report yesterday.

February's gain in production was larger than Wall Street analysts' expectations for a 0.4 increase.

Capacity utilisation, which measures how much productivecapacity is in use, climbed to 76.6% from 76.1% in January.