U.S. Industrial Output Rises 0.9%

Output at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities shot up at the fastest pace in nine months, but because most of the strength was due to special factors, the gain was not seen as an alarming sign of inflationary pressures. The 0.9% increase in industrial output is twice what economists had been forecasting, but they said the advance should not prove worrisome to Federal Reserve Board policymakers, who will meet privately today for their final interest rate meeting of the year. More than half the November gain in factory output was attributed to a rebound in auto production, which had been depressed in October when strikes at General Motors plants in Canada shut down U.S. assembly lines.