U.S. industrial production fell in April at the slowest pace in six months, signaling manufacturing may be stabilizing, Bloomberg reported.

Output at factories, mines and utilities decreased 0.5 percent last month, less than forecast, after falling a revised 1.7 percent in March, according to a report today from the Federal Reserve. The amount of industrial capacity in use dropped to a record-low 69.1 percent.

Companies may not cut back as deeply this quarter after reducing inventories at the fastest pace on record during the first three months of the year, which might help ease the economic slump. Still, rising confidence has yet to give way to sustained gains in spending, indicating a recovery will be slow to develop, Bloomberg said.

“The fallout has been so severe that we should start to see some stabilization, and we could even see some rebound in the months to come,” said Eugenio Aleman, an economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis.

Prospects for a second-half recovery “are there just because the fiscal package is going to have an impact,” he said.

Economists had forecast industrial production would fall 0.6 percent in April, according to the median of 66 projections in a Bloomberg News survey, after an initially reported 1.5 percent drop in March. Estimates ranged from a decline of 1.5 percent to an increase of 1 percent.

The decrease in industrial production was led by business equipment, such as computers, and construction supplies.