WASHINGTON – The value of business inventories in January saw a 0.6% increase, as expected by analysts and the MNI calculated prediction following the wholesale inventories report on Friday, data released Wednesday morning by the Commerce Department showed.
Retail inventories rose 0.7%, revised slightly down from the 0.8% in the advance estimate published on February 27. Already released data showed that wholesale inventories rose 0.8% in the month, while factory inventories were up 0.3%. The small revision did not alter the prediction from the MNI calculation for a 0.6% rise.
According to an MNI calculation, overall business inventories would have been up 0.5% in January if a 1.7% increase in retail motor vehicle inventories was excluded. This increase was unrevised from the advance estimate for motor vehicles.
After excluding the 1.7% increase for motor vehicle inventories, the remaining retail categories combined for a relatively small 0.1% gain, lower than the 0.3% gain previously reported in the advance estimate. There were gains in all except furniture, home furnishings, electrical, and appliance stores, which fell 0.5% after seeing a large 1.6% rise in December.
According to an MNI calculation, the unpublished retail categories were down 0.3%. This follows a 0.9% increase in December.
Business sales fell in January by 0.2%, however sales were up 5.7% year-over-year. This decline comes after December's 0.5% rise.
Retail sales excluding food services posted a 0.1% decline in the month, while wholesale sales saw a larger decline of 1.1%. Manufacturing shipments, which are equal to sales in this report, provided some offset, rising 0.6% in January.
Since business inventories rose in the month and business sales fell, the inventory-to-sales ratio rose to 1.34 in January. However, the ratio is well below the 1.37 level seen in January 2017, as sales have outpaced inventory growth over the last year.
