Wholesale Inventories Fall 0.7% in April; Sales Up 1.6%

June 7, 2002 12:10 PM, EDT

Inventories at U.S. wholesalers fell 0.7% in April, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported Friday. Wholesalers account for about one-fourth of all business stockpiles.

An analyst at FinancialOxygen Inc. of Walnut Creek, Calif. told Bloomberg that the declining inventories will support the recovery because of the need of companies to order more goods as long as sales continue to increase. This, in turn, increases the demand for trucking services.

istributors had $281.8 billion in merchandise on their shelves, the report said, the lowest level since October 1999. Bloomberg reported analysts had expected a 0.1% increase in inventories.

Commerce said that sales rose by 1.6% in the month, their biggest jumps since May 1999.

The inventory-to-sales ratio, or the measure of how long goods sit unsold on wholesalers’ shelves fell to 1.23 months, the lowest point in about a decade of comparable record keeping, the report said.

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