WASHINGTON — Business inventories rose 1.0% to $1,642.2 billion in January, while sales fell 0.3% to $1,268.8 billion, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
The January inventory gain, the largest since May 2011, followed a revised 0.3% increase in December, originally reported as a 0.1% advance.
The January increase was much higher than the median 0.4% gain predicted by economists polled by Thomson Reuters.
Inventories climbed 5.6% over the same month in 2012.
The drop in January sales followed a revised 0.1% increase in December, originally reported as a 0.3% gain.
January sales were 2.9% above sales for the same month in 2012.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of January was 1.29, higher than the previous month's ratio of 1.28 and above the 1.26 ratio in January 2012.
The last time the ratio was as high was in November 2009 when it was 1.30.
