Today, the Federal Reserve released their monthly read of industrial production showing truly dramatic declines to the aggregate production and widespread declines across many industries, particularly those related to consumer spending, construction and business vehicles, resulting in a significant year-over-year decline to the total index of 7.82% as compared to December 2007 and a 2.00% decline since November.
“Final product” consumer durable goods continue to show weakness falling 21.12% as an aggregate on a year-over-year basis, with particularly significant declines coming specifically from home appliances, furniture and carpeting which declined for the 32nd consecutive month by 23.18% on a year-over-year basis.Construction supply production has been showing the most severe contraction seen in at least the last 20 years with wood products falling 22.19%.
Although automotive production has been showing weakness since the middle of 2004, business vehicle production is now showing a stark contraction.
The following charts (click for larger) show the overall consumer durable component along with the Home Appliances, Furniture and Carpeting sub-component on both a time series and year-over-year basis, construction supply production with the wood products sub-component, and general and business related vehicle production all overlaid with the last two recessions for comparisons purposes.
