Business inventories in the U.S. rose in line with economist estimates in the month of August, the Commerce Department revealed in a report on Friday.
The Commerce Department said business inventories climbed by 0.7 percent in August after rising by an upwardly revised 0.3 percent in July.
Economists had expected inventories to increase by 0.7 percent compared to the 0.2 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month.
The report showed notable increases in wholesale and retail inventories, which climbed by 0.9 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Manufacturing inventories also rose by 0.4 percent.
The Commerce Department said business sales also increased by 0.7 percent in August after rising by 0.3 percent in July.
Wholesale sales showed a substantial increase, surging up by 1.7 percent. Manufacturing sales also rose by 0.5 percent, while retail sales edged down by 0.1 percent.
With inventories and sales rising at the same rate, the total business inventories/sales ratio came in unchanged compared to the previous month at 1.38.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.