Wholesalers' Inventories Down in August

WASHINGTON – U.S. wholesale companies were making progress in paring down swollen inventories as sales held up reasonably well prior to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, a Commerce Department report showed on Wednesday.

Commerce said wholesale inventories eased 0.1 percent in August to $298.68 billion after a 0.9 percent reduction in July.

Meanwhile, wholesale sales rose 0.6 percent to $229.31 billion following a 0.7 percent rise in July.

The closely watched stock-to-sales ratio, which measures how long it would take to deplete current inventories, slipped to 1.30 months in August from 1.31 in July.