Business inventories rose 0.4% to $1.715 trillion in January, while sales decreased 0.9% to $1.303 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
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The January inventory rise followed an unrevised 0.5% gain in December while sales were off 0.1% in December, originally reported as a 0.1% increase.
On a year-over-year basis, inventories climbed 3.9% over the same month in 2013, while sales grew 2.5% in that period.
The total business inventories/sales ratio, based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of January, was 1.32, up from the previous month's 1.30 ratio. The inventory/sales ratio for January 2013 was 1.30.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected a 0.4% increase in inventories.
