(March 10, 2008) – The Census Bureau announced this morning, in a Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories release, that January 2008 seasonally adjusted sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, were $387.7 billion, an increase of 2.7% from the revised December level and up 15.1% year-over-year. The December preliminary estimate was revised upward $0.7 billion, or 0.2%. January sales of durable goods were up 2.4% from December and were up 5.1% from one year ago.
January total inventories of merchant wholesalers, seasonally adjusted, were $414.8 billion – an increase of 0.8% from the revised December level and up 6.4% over January 2007. The December preliminary estimate was revised downward $0.1 billion. End-of-month durable goods inventories were up 0.6% from last month and up 1.7% from January 2007.
The January inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers was 1.07, seasonally adjusted, down from a ratio of 1.16 in January 2007.
All in all, a pretty darned good report. Hard to get a big GDP drop out of rising wholesale sales and low inventory levels.
JR
