A worker stacks boxes of television sets after they have been assembled, checked and repackaged, before moving them to the warehouse at Element Electronics in Winnsboro, South Carolina May 29, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)
The U.S. Census Bureau report on manufacturing and trade business inventories and sales showed an unusually strong build up in August.
The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for August, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,369.2 billion, up 0.7 percent (±0.1 percent) from July 2017 and was up 5.5 percent (±0.4 percent) from August 2016.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,889.0 billion, up 0.7 percent (±0.1 percent) from July 2017 and were up 3.6 percent (±0.3 percent) from August 2016.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of August was 1.38. The August 2016 ratio was 1.40.
