May business inventories continue to shrink

Sales 
The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for May, adjusted for seasonal and trading day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,284.3 billion, up 8.4 percent (±0.3 percent) from April 2020, but was down 11.8 percent (±0.4 percent) from May 2019.  

Inventories 
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories for May, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,933.7 billion, down 2.3 percent (±0.1 percent) from April 2020 and were down 4.8 percent (±0.4 percent) from May 2019.  

Inventories/Sales Ratio 
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of May was 1.51. The May 2019 ratio was 1.40.