The US Census Bureau announced today that 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 $1,304.1 billion, up 0.2 percent (±0.2 percent) from July 2016, but was virtually unchanged (±0.5 percent) from August 2015.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,816.9 billion, up 0.2 percent (±0.1 percent) from July 2016 and were up 0.7 percent (±0.6 percent) from August 2015.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of August was 1.39. The August 2015 ratio was 1.38.