The US Census Bureau announced today that the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for January, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,426.0 billion, down 0.2 percent (±0.2 percent) from December 2017, but was up 5.7 percent (±0.4 percent) from January 2017.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,917.0 billion, up 0.6 percent (±0.1 percent) from December 2017 and were up 3.7 percent (±0.3 percent) from January 2017.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of January was 1.34. The January 2017 ratio was 1.37.