The US Census Bureau announced today the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for August, adjusted for seasonal and trading day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,463.9 billion, up 0.2 percent (±0.1 percent) from July 2019 and was up 1.1 percent (±0.4 percent) from August 2018.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $2,042.1 billion, virtually unchanged (±0.1 percent) from July 2019, but were up 4.2 percent (±0.4 percent) from August 2018.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of August was 1.40. The August 2018 ratio was 1.35.