April Wholesale Inventories Rise More Than Forecast

holesale inventories increased 0.8% to $350 billion in April, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The increase was double economists’ forecasts, Bloomberg reported. Wholesalers’ sales rose 1.5% in April, the most since March 2004, Commerce said.

hen inventories and sales increase, it usually means trucking companies received additional demand to deliver goods to stores.

Stockpiles of non-durable goods increased 1.4% following a 1.2% rise in March. Sales of such goods rose 1.5% in April after a 0.8% rise in March.

Commerce said the inventory-to-sales ratio, a measure of how long supplies on hand would last at the current sales rate, was 1.18 months, down from 1.19 months in March.

Wholesalers account for about a fourth of all business inventories. Retailers and factories account for the rest.