[Marxism] Census Bureau Economic Briefing Room

[S. Artesian]

Sales. The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that the combined value of 
distributive trade sales and manufacturers' shipments for
December, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for 
price changes, was estimated at $1,016.6 billion, down 3.2
percent (±0.2%) from November 2008 and down 11.8 percent (±0.3%) from 
December 2007.

Inventories. Manufacturers' and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal 
variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an
end-of-month level of $1,460.5 billion, down 1.3 percent (±0.1%) from 
November 2008, but up 0.9 percent (±0.4%) from December
2007.

Inventories/Sales Ratio. The total business inventories/sales ratio based on 
seasonally adjusted data at the end of December was
1.44. The December 2007 ratio was 1.26

http://www.census.gov/mtis/www/data/pdf/mtis_current.pdf