WASHINGTON — The value of business inventories rose 0.4% in December, slightly above analysts' expectations for a 0.3% rise, but right on target with what the calculation by MNI predicted after the wholesale inventories report on Friday, data released Wednesday morning by the Commerce Department showed.
Retail inventories rose 0.2%, unrevised from the advance estimate published on January 26. Already released data showed that wholesale inventories rose 0.4% in the month, while factory inventories were up 0.5%.
According to an MNI calculation, overall business inventories would have been up 0.5% in December if an unrevised 0.4% decline in retail motor vehicle inventories was excluded.
After excluding the 0.4% decrease for motor vehicle inventories, the remaining retail categories combined for a 0.5% gain, slightly lower than the 0.6% gain reported in the advance estimate. There were gains in all business categories, with an especially large 1.7% rise in furniture, home furnishings, electrical, and appliance store. Under general merchandise stores there was a small decline in department stores.
The unpublished retail categories were up 0.4%, according to an MNI calculation. This followed a 0.5% increase in the previous month.
Business sales also saw a rise of 0.6% in December, following a 1.4% rise in November. Business sales are up 6.7% year-over-year.
Retail sales excluding food services were down 0.1% in the month, while wholesale sales rose 1.2% and manufacturing shipments, which are equal to sales in this report, were up 0.6%.
With both business inventories and business sales seeing moderate rises, the inventory-to-sales ratio remained at 1.33 in December, the lowest value since November 2014. The ratio is well below the 1.37 level in December 2016, as sales grew at a much faster rate than inventories over the last twelve months.
