The US Census Bureau announced Friday that the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for September, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,320.3 billion, virtually unchanged (±0.2 percent) from August 2015, but was down 2.8 percent (±0.4 percent) from September 2014.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,817.5 billion, up 0.3 percent (±0.1 percent) from August 2015 and were up 2.5 percent (±0.5 percent) from September 2014.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of September was 1.38. The September 2014 ratio was 1.31.