Inventories Dip 0.1%, Sales Rise 1.6% in March

Merchant wholesalers posted a 0.1% decrease in inventories in March, while sales jumped 1.6% in the month, according to data released yesterday by the Commerce Department.

Inventories of merchant wholesalers slid to $420.8 billion, following a downwardly revised 0.9% increase to $421.1 billion in February, originally reported as a 1.1% increase to $421.9 billion.

Meanwhile, sales of merchant wholesalers rose to about $384.3 billion, following February’s revised 0.5% decrease to $378.2 billion, originally reported as a 0.8% drop to $377.4 billion.

Economists polled by IFR Markets predicted a 0.5% increase in wholesale inventories, and 0.7% growth in wholesale sales.

Inventories were up 6.8% from March 2007, when they were at $394.0 billion, while year over year sales posted a 12.6% jump from $341.3 billion.

The inventories to sales ratio was 1.09, down from 1.11 last month and down from 1.15 a year ago.

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