WASHINGTON — Sales of merchant wholesalers were up 0.5% in September, following a 1.0% gain the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Inventories were down 0.1% for the month after increasing 0.1% in August. The September decline was the first drop since December 2009 when inventories were down 0.8%.
The gain in sales for September was lower than the median 0.8% increase projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. The economists had estimated a 0.5% gain in wholesale inventories.
