American manufacturing and industrial production for the “booming Bidenomics” year 2023, was flat. To be more exact, from January 2023 through January 2024 industrial production was unchanged, and fell by 0.1% in January itself. U.S. manufacturing output dropped by 0.5% in January, and for the year to Jan. 31, 2024 it was down by 0.9% (and American manufacturing output has fallen or stagnated for seven consecutive quarter-years going into January).
According to Bloomberg News, manufacturing capacity utilization dropped to 76.6% in January, which is below its long-term (10-year) average by 1.6 percentage points.
Moreover, deflation is now mixed with inflation in U.S. market basket prices: The Consumer Price Index data published Feb. 13 showed a large number of food products and other physical goods deflating in price (not “disinflating,” but actually declining in price from January 2023 to January 2024 as a whole. Meanwhile inflation in prices for services rose by 4.1% for that year. Overall, the CPI was claimed to be up by 3.1% for the year through January 2024.
