HOUSTON, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The business inventories for April hit 2.03 trillion U.S. dollars, edging up slightly from last month's data, according to the latest U.S. manufacturing and trade statistics report released on Friday.
Manufacturers' and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of 2,029.8 billion dollars, up 0.5 percent from March 2019, and were up 5.3 percent from April 2018, said the report of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers' shipments for April, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at 1,462.0 billion dollars, down 0.2 percent from March 2019 but was up 2.8 percent from April 2018.
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of April was 1.39. The April 2018 ratio was 1.36. Enditem