WASHINGTON - Sales of merchant wholesalers were up 0.5% in September, following a 1.0% gain the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
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Inventories were down 0.1% for the month, after increasing 0.1% in August. The September decline was the first drop since December 2009 when inventories were down 0.8%.
The gain in sales for September was lower than the median 0.8% increase projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. The economists had estimated a 0.5% gain in wholesale inventories.
The September inventories/sales ratio was 1.15, the same as the revised ratio for August but lower than the 1.18 ratio a year ago. The September ratio was the lowest since April when it was 1.14.
