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Economy in Brief
U.S. Federal Government Budget Deficit Shrinks in July
The U.S. Treasury Department reported a federal budget deficit of $211.1 billion in July...
U.S. Mortgage Applications Rose Slightly in the Latest Week
Mortgage applications increased 0.2% (-62.9% y/y) from one week earlier...
German Inflation Rises
The German inflation rate as measured by the HICP accelerated to 8.4% in July...
U.S. Productivity Declines in Q2, Pushing Unit Labor Costs Higher
Nonfarm business sector productivity fell 4.6% (AR) during Q2'22...
U.S. Small Business Optimism Edged Up in July
The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index edged up to 89.9 in July...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller October 14, 2005
August total business inventories reversed the prior month's decline and rose 0.4%. The increase was double Consensus expectations, the first since May and the largest since March. Nevertheless, the ratio of inventories-to-sales remained at the record low of 1.26 due to a 0.4% (7.1% y/y) rise in business sales.
The 0.9% rise in retail inventories gained back half of the prior month's decline due to a 1.7% increase in motor vehicle inventories but excluding autos inventories jumped 0.6% (5.9% y/y). Furniture inventories fell 0.3% (+6.1% y/y) but general merchandise surged 1.3% (6.9% y/y).
Factory sector inventories fell slightly after a sharp 0.6% July gain.
Wholesale inventories increased 0.5%. During the last ten years there has been a 64% correlation between the y/y change in wholesale inventories and the change in imports of merchandise.
Economic Flexibility, a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, is available here.
Business Inventories | Aug | July | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 0.4% | -0.4% | 3.8% | 7.7% | 1.4% | 1.6% |
Retail | 0.9% | -1.8% | -0.4% | 5.7% | 3.9% | 5.9% |
Retail excl. Autos | 0.6% | -0.0% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 2.0% | 2.3% |
Wholesale | 0.5% | 0.1% | 7.7% | 10.8% | 2.0% | 1.2% |
Manufacturing | -0.1% | 0.6% | 5.3% | 7.7% | -1.1% | -5.4% |