U.S. industrial production rose 0.7 percent in September, following a gain of 1.2 percent in August, the Federal Reserve said Friday.

The third quarter posted a gain of 5.2 percent, the first quarter with a net gain since the first quarter of 2008, the Fed said.

Manufacturing output increased 0.9 percent in September over August, pushed by a 0.5 percent increase in automobile production.

Mining output rose 0.7 percent, while output from utilities dropped 0.7 percent.

Taking a longer perspective, production reached 98.5 percent of its 2002 average, which was 6.1 percent lower than the same month a year ago.

In September, capacity utilization -- output compared to production at full capacity -- rose to 70.5 percent, which is 10.4 percentage points below its 1972 through 2008 average, the Fed said.