WHOLESALERS PARE INVENTORIES IN FEBRUARY

AN EASTER GIFT FOR RETAILERS

The Commerce Department reported today that February 1996 sales by wholesalers were $194.4 billion, up 0.8 (+/-0.7) percent from the revised January level, and 4.8 (+/-1.0) percent above February 1995. The January preliminary estimate was revised downward by $0.9 billion or 0.5 percent.

Wholesalers were able to pare down inventories a bit in February. Inventories were $255.8 billion, down 0.2 (+/-0.4) percent from the revised January level, but were 6.7 (+/-1.4) percent above February 1995. The January preliminary estimate was revised downward by $0.3 billion or 0.1 percent.

Notice that the month-to-month changes in sales and inventories have large uncertainties that make them essentially useless. But, the year-to-year changes are sufficiently large that their uncertainty factors become comparitively small.

The February inventory/sales ratio for wholesalers was 1.32, down from 1.33 in January.

In other news today, Mitsubishi Bank/Schroder-Wertheim announced that retail sales at the stores included in their weekly survey were up by 1.7 percent in the week ending April 6. The surge, no doubt, was due to shopping related to the Easter holiday. Comparable-store sales for the week were up 4.5 percent compared to the same week last year.

Byline: Lafferty (MF Merlin)