The US Census Bureau announced today that the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for October, adjusted for seasonal and trading day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,482.3 billion, up 0.9 percent (±0.1 percent) from September 2020 and was up 2.2 percent (±0.3 percent) from October 2019.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories for October, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,948.7 billion, up 0.7 percent (±0.1 percent) from September 2020, but were down 4.0 percent (±0.4 percent) from October 2019.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of October was 1.31. The October 2019 ratio was 1.40.