The US Census Bureau announced today 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 $1,449.6 billion, up 0.3 percent (±0.3 percent) from December 2018 and was up 2.8 percent (±0.3 percent) from January 2018.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $2,013.9 billion, up 0.8 percent (±0.1 percent) from December 2018 and were up 5.3 percent (±0.4 percent) from January 2018.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of January was 1.39. The January 2018 ratio was 1.36.