
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994                   TAG: 9403150204
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

BUSINESS INVENTORIES STEADY

Business inventories held steady in January, while sales - because of a weather-related decline in retail spending - dipped for the first time in six months as 1994 began, the government said Monday.

There were few surprises in the Commerce Department report showing stocks held on shelves and backlots totaled a seasonally adjusted $872.9 billion, virtually unchanged from December.

Sales slipped 0.3 percent after five consecutive increases, to a seasonally adjusted $610.9 billion. It was the first decline since July as retail buying plunged 1.6 percent to $178.9 billion.

Sales rose 0.8 percent at wholesalers to $162.7 billion and slipped 0.1 percent at factories to $269.3 billion.

Sales had jumped 0.9 percent in December.

``The important item is that inventories are comfortable right now,'' said Michael Moran, chief economist for Daiwa Securities America of New York. ``We could have a case where firms will boost inventories. This is possibly a source of growth.''

For many economists, the steady pace of inventories suggests room for expansion. They note that businesses have been keeping their inventories lean; even though they rose in the latter half of 1993, they stayed at historically low levels.

The inventory-to-sales ratio was 1.43 at the end of January, compared with 1.42 the previous month. That means it would take 1.43 months to exhaust stockpiles at the January sales pace.

At the retail level, inventories fell 0.2 percent to $278.6 billion. They were up 0.3 percent at factories to $378.7 billion and down 0.4 percent at wholesalers to $215.6 billion.

by CNB