The likelihood of a double-dip recession got a little more remote yesterday, with the news that industrial production in the United States grew in the month of September. The growth in output at factories, mines and utilities was nothing great - just 0.2 percent - but it was up from being flat in August. The biggest movers were increasing demand for automobiles and computers.
In the first half of 2011, the industrial numbers had slowed to practically nothing. The indicators had shown that, for those six months, our industrial output was the weakest it had been since the onset of the recession in 2007.
So the fact that the numbers have reversed direction is very good news indeed. The growth in industrial output led the chief market strategist for JP Morgan to estimate that we'll see an increase in GDP for the third quarter somewhere between 2 and 3 percent. For the second quarter, remember, it was just 1.3 percent.
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