Industrial output, retail sales take a hit from Harvey's fury

Washington

US industrial output fell in August for the first time since January as Hurricane Harvey battered oil, gas and chemical plants along the Gulf Coast and a cool summer sapped utility demand in the east, the Federal Reserve said on Friday. The storm also took its toll on retail sales which posted its biggest drop in six months

Overall industrial production fell 0.9 per cent over the month after a July increase revised upwards to 0.4 per cent.

The Fed, using a combination of high-frequency plant output data and economic modelling, attributed about 0.75 percentage point of the decline to storm effects that "temporarily curtailed drilling, servicing, a…