The US Census Bureau announced today 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 $1,445.0 billion, down 1.0 percent (±0.2 percent) from November 2018, but was up 2.1 percent (±0.3 percent) from December 2017.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,994.5 billion, up 0.6 percent (±0.1 percent) from November 2018 and were up 4.8 percent (±0.4 percent) from December 2017.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of December was 1.38. The December 2017 ratio was 1.34.