WASHINGTON – The value of business inventories rose 0.4% in December, as expected, while sales surged 2.0%, data released Wednesday morning by the Commerce Department showed.
Retail inventories rose 0.1%, revised up slightly from the flat reading posted in the advance estimate. Already released data showed that wholesale inventories rose 1.0% in the month, while factory inventories were up 0.1%.
Overall business inventories would have been up 0.5% in December if a 0.6% decline in retail motor vehicle inventories was excluded, an MNI calculation showed.
After excluding the motor vehicle inventory drop, the remaining retail categories combined for a 0.4% increase, with the components all higher except for a 0.3% decline in furniture inventories.
The unpublished retail categories were up 0.6%, according to an MNI calculation. This followed a 0.4% increase in the previous month.
Business sales surged 2.0% in December. Retail sales excluding food services were up 1.2% in the month, as announced earlier Wednesday, while wholesale sales rose 2.6% and manufacturing shipments, which are equal to sales in this report, were up 2.2%.
With the small gain in business inventories and the much larger increase in sales, the inventory-to-sales ratio fell to 1.35 in December from 1.38 in November and 1.40 in December 2015. The current month's ratio is the lowest since 1.34 in December 2014.
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