(RTTNews) - After reporting a spike in U.S. wholesale inventories in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing a continued increase in wholesale inventories in the month of January.
The report showed wholesale inventories climbed by 0.8 percent in January after surging by an upwardly revised 2.6 percent in December.
Economists had expected wholesale inventories to advance by 0.8 percent compared to the 2.2 percent jump originally reported for the previous month.
The continued increase in wholesale inventories came as inventories of durable and non-durable goods rose by 0.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.
The Commerce Department also said wholesale sales soared by 4.0 percent in January after climbing by 0.8 percent in December.
Sales of durable goods spiked by 5.7 percent during the month, while sales of non-durable goods shot up by 2.4 percent.
With sales surging by much more than inventories, the inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers dropped to 1.20 in January from 1.24 in December.
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