Despite an anticipated slowdown in the rate of economic recovery, leading indicators are still somewhat positive, and the economic upturn is expected to continue slowly this year, according to PMMI’s First Quarter 2011 Economic Outlook.
According to the Federal Reserve, October 2010’s US total industrial production index, PMMI’s benchmark economic indicator, was flat after a slight increase (0.3 percent) in September. However, total US industrial production increased 5.9 percent from December 2009 to December 2010. Total US industrial capacity utilization was 75.2 percent in October 2010 and down 0.2 percent for the year December 2009 to December 2010. These are the early indicators of an impending slowdown in the rate of recovery forecasted for 2011.