U.S. Wholesale Inventories Inch Up 0.1% In July, Slightly Less Than Expected

(RTTNews) - Wholesale inventories in the U.S. increased slightly less than expected in the month of July, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday.

The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories crept up by 0.1 percent in July after rising by an upwardly revised 0.2 percent in June.

Economists had expected wholesale inventories to rise by 0.2 percent, unchanged from the flash estimate, compared to the uptick the 0.1 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month.

The modest growth by wholesale inventories came as a 0.2 percent dip by inventories of durable goods partly offset a 0.7 percent increase by inventories of non-durable goods.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said wholesale sales surged by 1.4 percent in July after climbing by 0.7 percent in June.

The report said sales of durable goods shot up by 1.3 percent during the month, while sales of non-durable goods jumped by 1.6 percent.

With sales increasing by much more than inventories, the inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers edged down to 1.28 in July from 1.29 in June.