Sept. Inventories Dip 0.1%, Sales Fall 1.5% in September

Merchant wholesalers posted a 0.1% decrease in inventories in September, while sales dropped 1.5% in the month, according to data released Friday by the Commerce Department.

Inventories of merchant wholesalers slid to $444.2 billion, following a downwardly revised 0.6% increase to $444.5 billion in August, originally reported as a 0.8% rise to $445.4 billion.

Meanwhile, sales of merchant wholesalers slid to about $396.2 billion following August’s revised 1.6% decrease to $402.3 billion, originally reported as a 1.0% drop to $404.9 billion.

Economists polled by Thomson Reuters predicted a 0.3% increase in wholesale inventories.

Inventories were up 9.7% from September 2007, when they were at $405.1 billion, while year-over-year sales posted a 9.1% jump from $363.1 billion.

The inventories to sales ratio was 1.12, up from 1.10 last month and equal to 1.12 a year ago.

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