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Economy in Brief
Japan's Inflation Shows Mixed Gains
Japan's inflation rose by 0.4% in July...
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The current general activity diffusion index rose nearly 19 points in August to 6.2...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Slightly Lower
Initial claims for unemployment insurance went down 2,000 in the week ended August 13 to 250,000...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller November 16, 2005
Total business inventories in September added 0.5% to the prior month's 0.4% rise. The gains marked the strongest consecutive monthly increases since February & March yet they failed to reverse the decline in the ratio of inventories-to-sales which fell to a new record low. The I/S ratio fell to 1.25 as business sales increased 0.6% (7.8% y/y).
The 0.9% rise in retail inventories repeated its August increase due to a 2.1% jump in motor vehicle inventories. Excluding autos, inventories rose 0.4% as clothing inventories rose 0.5% (5.7% y/y) and general merchandise increased 0.4% (6.9% y/y). Furniture inventories fell 0.3% (+5.7% y/y) for the third consecutive down month.
Factory sector inventories fell for the second consecutive month.
Wholesale inventories increased 0.6%. 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.
Business Inventories | Sept | Aug | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 0.5% | 0.4% | 4.3% | 7.7% | 1.4% | 1.6% |
Retail | 0.9% | 0.9% | 1.1% | 5.7% | 3.9% | 5.9% |
Retail excl. Autos | 0.4% | 0.6% | 6.0% | 5.9% | 2.0% | 2.3% |
Wholesale | 0.6% | 0.5% | 8.0% | 10.8% | 2.0% | 1.2% |
Manufacturing | -0.2% | -0.1% | 4.9% | 7.7% | -1.1% | -5.4% |