Destocking continues
A 0.8% rise in sales and a like decline in wholesale inventories in December pushed the inventories-to-sales ratio, or how many months it would take businesses to liquidate stockpiles, from 1.14 in November to 1.12 in December.
Companies are running lean when it comes to holding onto goods that customers may demand. And the lack of goods on hand should lend support to the economy in the short term as companies restock.
In fact, a recent boost in production and a rise in inventories was a big contributor to the strong 4Q advance GDP report issued a week ago.
The drop in inventories at the end of the year could signal a downward revision when the next estimate hits in a couple of weeks. Still, sales are up almost 6% from one year ago, underscoring that the economy has begun to improve.
0 comments:
Post a Comment