WASHINGTON – The value of business inventories in November was down 0.1% from October vs a 0.2% gain expected by analysts, data released by the Commerce Department Thursday morning showed.
Retail inventories fell 0.4%, while the wholesale inventories report showed a 0.3% gain in the month, while factory inventories were already reported to be down 0.1%.
According to an MNI calculation, if a 0.5% increase in motor vehicle inventories had been excluded, total business inventories would have been down 0.2% in November.
After excluding the increase in motor vehicle inventories, the remaining retail categories were down 1.0%. All of the other retail inventory components were generally down in November.
At the same time, the relatively large unpublished retail category was down 0.4% following a 0.2% increase in October, according to an MNI calculation.
November business sales posted a 0.3% decrease in the month, and retail sales excluding food services were up 0.2% in November. There was a previously announced 0.6% decline for factory shipments, which are equal to sales in this report, and wholesale sales posted a 0.6% decline.
The inventory-to-sales ratio was unchanged in November from 1.35 in October due to similar downward movements in inventories compared to sales in November. The ratio remained unchanged from the 1.35 level seen in November 2017, as sales and inventory growth have moved at a similar pace over the last year.
