Apparel merchant sales reach $9,403 million in August
08 Oct '05
2 min read
Sales: The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that August 2005 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers' sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were $302.5 billion, up 1.3 percent (+/-0.7%) from the revised July level and were up 7.6 percent (+/-1.2%) from the August 2004 level.
The July preliminary estimate was revised downward $0.1 billion. August sales of durable goods increased 1.9 percent (+/-1.0%) from last month and were up 6.3 percent (+/-1.8%) from a year ago.
Sales of petroleum and petroleum products increased 5.1 percent from last month and sales of paper and paper products increased 3.3 percent.
August apparel sales reached $9,403 million against July figure of $9,912 million, this year.
Inventories:
Total inventories of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers' sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were $354.5 billion at the end of August, up 0.5 percent (+/-0.3%) from last month, and were up 7.7 percent (+/-1.0%) from a year ago.
The July preliminary estimate was revised upward $0.6 billion or 0.2 percent. End-ofmonth inventories of durable goods increased 0.1 percent (+/-0.5%)* from July and were up 8.1 percent (+/-1.2%) from last August.
Inventories of machinery, equipment, and supplies increased 1.8 percent, while inventories of metals and minerals, except petroleum, were down 1.4 percent. End-of-month inventories of nondurable goods increased 1.2 percent (+/-0.7%) from July and were up 7.2 percent (+/-1.5%) compared to last August.
Inventories of petroleum and petroleum products increased 5.6 percent from last month.
The August inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers' sales branches and offices, based on seasonally adjusted data, was 1.17. The August 2004 ratio was 1.17.
marketing@alchempro.com
