U.S. Business Inventory Growth Remains Moderate

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that business inventories rose 0.4% during December following a 0.3% gain in November. For the year growth moderated slightly to 7.7%. Business sales increased 0.7% in December. As a result, the inventory/sales ratio slipped to 1.26 following four months at 1.27. During December inventories were 7.7% higher than one year earlier, and sales were up 8.9%.

In the retail sector, inventories rose 0.2% m/m following a 0.4% November increase. Motor vehicle & parts inventories ticked up 0.1% in December (3.7% y/y) after a 13.4% gain during 2010. Excluding autos inventories increased 0.2% (3.4% y/y) after a 3.8% 2010 rise. Inventories of building materials fell 0.5% (+0.7% y/y) after the 2.1% gain in 2010 and food & beverage store inventories rose 0.3% (5.3% y/y) following 2010's 1.4% rise. Apparel inventories rose 0.4% (8.2% y/y) after 3.1% gain one year earlier while furniture & equipment rose 0.2% (-2.9% y/y) following a 5.3% rise in 2010. General merchandise inventories increased 0.6% (3.1% y/y) after a 5.8% rise in 2010. Wholesale inventories jumped 1.3% (11.8% y/y) led by a 2.2% rise (16.1% y/y) in petroleum. Less petroleum wholesale inventories also rose 0.9% (9.7% y/y) after a 10.9% rise in 2010. Factory inventories ticked up 0.1% (9.4% y/y) after an 8.7% rise in 2010.

The manufacturing and trade data are in Haver's USECON database. Note that in a value-added feature, the database includes series calculated by Haver database managers showing sales, inventories and I/S ratios for total business less motor vehicle dealers and related wholesale operations.