Industries will expand or contract production to meet demand. For example, the demand for consumer light trucks has risen dramatically over the past ten years relative to demand for consumer cars. The current level of consumer light truck production is more than twice the level in 1992.
|Industrial Production Index (1992=100)||Dec-01||Jan-02|
|Consumer light trucks||259.56||254.13|
|Percent change from previous month||3.20||-2.09|
|Commercial motor vehicles||151.37||150.76|
|Percent change from previous month||5.37||-0.40|
|Percent change from previous month||6.59||0.09|
NOTES: These numbers represent three components of Standard Industrial Classification grouping for motor vehicles (371). The figures for selected non-automotive industries (372-6,9) are on the page entitled Industry Production Indices for Non-Automotive Transportation Equipment.
The dip in assemblies in mid-1998 was caused by a strike at General Motors in June and July.
These indices are based on market group categories as opposed to the industrial group categories used on other pages that use Federal Reserve data.
Data from October 2001 to January 2002 are preliminary.
SOURCE: Federal Reserve, "Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization" Statistical Release; Jan. 16, 2002; available at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/download.htm.