The U.S. Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday indicating a slight decline in business inventories for March.
According to the report, business inventories decreased by 0.1% in March, following a 0.3% rise in February. This slight dip was in line with economists’ expectations.
The decrease in business inventories was primarily due to a 0.4% drop in wholesale inventories in March, after a 0.2% increase in February. In contrast, retail inventories rose by 0.2% in March, following a 0.3% increase in February, while manufacturing inventories experienced a minor uptick of 0.1% in March, after also rising by 0.3% in February.
The report also noted that business sales saw a marginal decline of 0.1% in March, following a significant 1.4% increase in February.
Leading the decline, wholesale sales fell by 1.3% in March, after a substantial 2.0% increase in February. On the contrary, retail sales grew by 0.8% for the second consecutive month, and manufacturing sales rose by 0.3% in March after a notable 1.3% jump in February.
With both inventories and sales edging slightly lower, the overall business inventories-to-sales ratio remained unchanged from the previous month at 1.37.
