Business inventories rose 0.5% to $1.708 trillion in December, while sales increased 0.1% to $1.318 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
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The December inventory rise followed an unrevised 0.4% gain in November while sales were up 0.7% in November, originally reported as a 0.8% increase.
On a year-over-year basis, inventories climbed 4.4% over the same month in 2012, while sales grew 3.8% in that period.
The total business inventories/sales ratio, based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of December, was 1.30, up from the previous month's 1.29 ratio. The inventory/sales ratio for December 2012 was 1.29.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected a 0.4% increase in inventories.
