Wholesale Sales Up 0.4% in June; Inventories Down 0.2%

WASHINGTON -- Sales of merchant wholesalers rose 0.4% to $425.9 billion in June, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The June sales increase followed a revised 1.5% rise the previous month, originally reported as a 1.6% gain. The June increase in sales was weaker than the median 0.7% gain projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

Sales of durable goods were up 1.1%, while sales of non-durable goods fell 0.2%. Overall, the June sales total was 5.6% above the level for the same month a year ago.

Inventories fell 0.2% to $499.7 billion in June. The decrease followed a revised 0.6% fall the previous month, originally reported as a 0.5% drop, the Commerce Department said.

June inventories of durable goods were roughly unchanged from last month, and inventories of nondurable goods inventories were down 0.3%. The overall June inventory level was 2.9% above the level of a year ago.

June's inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers' sales branches and offices, was 1.17 based on seasonally adjusted data. The unrevised May ratio was 1.18, and the June 2012 ratio was 1.20.

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