The US Census Bureau announced today manufacturing and trade statistics for December 2016. The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for December, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,356.0 billion, up 2.0 percent (±0.2 percent) from November 2016 and was up 5.2 percent (±0.4 percent) from December 2015.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,835.7 billion, up 0.4 percent (±0.2 percent) from November 2016 and were up 2.0 percent (±0.5 percent) from December 2015.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of December was 1.35. The December 2015 ratio was 1.40.