June Business Inventories Fall; Sales UP!

Washington, August 13, 2009-

Total business inventories fell by a larger than expected 1.1% in June, marking the eighth consecutive month of inventory declines of 1% or larger, the Commerce Department reported today.

Economists were expecting a smaller 0.9% decline after inventories fell 1.0% in May (since revised down to a 1.2% decline). Inventories have now fallen for ten consecutive months and are down 9.8% over the year.
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Retail inventories fell 1.0% in June, while wholesale inventories, as Commerce has already reported, fell 1.7% and manufacturer inventories fell 0.8% in the month. Within retail, inventories at auto and parts dealers fell 2.8%, carrying much of the overall inventory decline.

Excluding autos, retail inventories fell 0.3%, helped by a 2.2% decline in building material supplies and smaller declines in inventories at furniture, food and clothing stores. The only inventory increase within retail was at general merchandise stores, where stockpiles increase by 0.8%.

Meanwhile, business sales shot up by 0.9%, the largest increase since June 2008!Manufacturing sales rose 1.4% and merchant wholesaler sales rose 0.4% in June. Retail sales rose 0.9%, thanks in part to a 1.9% increase in auto sales.

Excluding autos, sales rose 0.7% as a 0.2% increase in sales at food and beverage stores managed to offset declines in every other retail category.