WASHINGTON - Business inventories were up 0.6% to $1,577.8 billion in February, while sales rose 0.7% to $1,236.7 billion, the Commerce Department reported Monday.
The February gain in inventories followed an upwardly-revised 0.8% gain in January and was higher than the median 0.6% increase estimated by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. The January increase was originally reported as a 0.7% advance.
Inventories were up 7.6% from February 2011.
The 0.7% gain in February sales followed an unrevised 0.4% increase in January and was 7.6% over sales in February 2011.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of February was 1.28, unchanged from both the previous month and from the February 2011 ratio.
