WASHINGTON — Sluggish spending by businesses and consumers is causing factories to cool their production after they helped lift the economy out of recession.
Companies have slowed their rebuilding of stockpiles and replacement of worn- out equipment. And consumers are cautiously spending at a time of 9.6 percent unemployment and slow job growth. That combination led to the first decline in output at the nation’s mines, factories and utilities since the recession ended in June 2009.
Factory output, the largest element of industrial production, fell 0.2 percent in September, the Federal Reserve said Monday. So did overall industrial production.
In the year after the recession ended, manufacturing surged ahead at an 8.8 percent annual rate. That was the strongest year-over-year gain since the 1983-84 economic recovery. But the growth has been more or less flat over the past two months.
Without consumer demand to take up the slack, industry can’t maintain its strong growth. Economists said they expect factory growth to bounce back modestly because the weaker U.S. dollar is making American goods less costly to overseas buyers.
