WASHINGTON – The value of business inventories fell 0.2% in April, as expected by analysts and predicted by an MNI calculation, while business sales were flat, a Commerce Department report Wednesday showed.
Retail inventories fell 0.2%, revised up from the advance estimate of a 0.3% decrease. Wholesale inventories fell 0.5% in the month, while factory inventories were up 0.1%.
Business inventories would have still been down 0.2% in April if a 0.4% decline in retail motor vehicle inventories was excluded, an MNI calculation showed.
Retail inventories, after excluding the motor vehicle inventory gain, were down 0.2% in the month, the same as reported in the advance estimate. The remaining retail components all declined except for a 0.7% rise in food and beverage store inventories.
The unpublished retail categories were down 0.2% for the month, according to an MNI calculation, following a 0.5% increase in the previous month.
Business sales were flat in April. Retail sales excluding food services rose 0.5%, offsetting a 0.4% decline for wholesale sales and a flat reading for manufacturing shipments, which are equivalent to sales in this report.
With the movements in business inventories and sales, the inventory-to-sales ratio held steady at 1.37 in April, but was down from 1.42 in April 2016 as sales growth sharply outpaced inventory growth over the last year.
