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 $1,296.2 billion, down 0.4 percent (±0.3 percent) from December 2015 and was down 1.1 percent (±0.4 percent) from January 2015.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,812.3 billion, up 0.1 percent (±0.2 percent) from December 2015 and were up 1.8 percent (±0.5 percent) from January 2015.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of January was 1.40. The January 2015 ratio was 1.36.