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 $1,359.3 billion, up 0.2 percent (±0.2 percent) from December 2016 and was up 6.4 percent (±0.4 percent) from January 2016.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,841.4 billion, up 0.3 percent (±0.1 percent) from December 2016 and were up 2.3 percent (±0.3 percent) from January 2016.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of January was 1.35. The January 2016 ratio was 1.41.