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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993                   TAG: 9309160071
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

LEAN INVENTORIES AN UPLIFTING SIGN

Fresh reports Wednesday suggested the economy might pick up a bit of steam during the second half of the year. One showed businesses with lean inventories; another indicated consumers are paying their debts more easily.

Inventories held on shelves and back lots fell 0.5 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted $860.3 billion, the Commerce Department said. Inventories were unchanged in June; July's was the first decline since September and the steepest since March 1991.

Both the inventory decline and a drop in loan delinquencies "bode for slightly stronger economic performance in the second half of the year than we had in the first half," said economist David Jones of Aubrey G. Lanston & Co. in New York.

Businesses' difficulty in reducing an unwanted inventory buildup slowed economic growth in the April-June quarter, but inventories now are at a level that should not impede future growth, he said.

Much of the July decline was among auto dealers, where inventories fell 4.9 percent, the largest decline in nearly seven years.

At the retail level, inventories fell 1.3 percent. They were flat at factories and down 0.2 percent at wholesalers.

But business sales were weak in July. They fell 1.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted $583.6 billion, the biggest drop since December 1991.

Sales were weakest at factories, where they fell 2.6 percent. They slipped 0.1 percent at wholesalers and rose 0.3 percent at retailers.

An advance report Tuesday showed retail sales up 0.2 percent in August.

by CNB