The Commerce Department published a report on Thursday indicating that U.S. wholesale inventories declined slightly more than anticipated in September. According to the report, wholesale inventories decreased by 0.2% in September, following a 0.2% increase in August, whereas economists had predicted a 0.1% decline.
The slight reduction in wholesale inventories was mainly due to a 0.5% drop in inventories of durable goods, which outweighed a 0.3% rise in non-durable goods inventories.
Conversely, the report highlighted that wholesale sales grew by 0.3% in September, after a marginal 0.2% growth in August. Durable goods sales saw a 0.4% increase, while non-durable goods sales rose by 0.2% during the same period.
As a result of this dynamic, where inventories decreased and sales expanded, the inventories-to-sales ratio for merchant wholesalers slightly decreased to 1.34 in September from 1.35 in August.
