With a decrease in retail inventories offsetting increases in manufacturing and wholesale inventories, the Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing business inventories in the U.S. came in flat in the month of March.
The Commerce Department said business inventories were virtually unchanged in March after climbing by 0.6 percent in February. Economists had expected inventories to inch up by 0.1 percent.
While manufacturing and wholesale inventories both rose by 0.3 percent during the month, retail inventories fell by 0.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the report said business sales climbed by 0.5 percent in March, matching the upwardly revised increase in the previous month.
Retail sales increased by 0.7 percent, while manufacturing and wholesale sales rose by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
With sales rising and inventories unchanged, the total business inventories/sales ratio edged down to 1.34 in March from 1.35 in February.
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