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

DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993                   TAG: 9309210006
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE VALLEY ECONOMIC INDICATORS

The increase of 0.3 percent from 144.4 in July was higher than most economists had expected. Inflation is running at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent for the first eight months of this year.

The index for August 1992 was 140.9, meaning a collection of goods and services costing $140.90 a year ago was selling for $144.80 last month.

In the Roanoke Valley, automobile dealers registered 593 cars last month.

That's a drop of 12 percent from 674 in July, but it represents an increase of 27 percent from 467 in August 1992.

For the first eight months of the year, 4,627 cars were registered in the valley, a gain of 11.8 percent over 4,139 a year ago.

Of the cars registered in August, 309 belonged to residents of Roanoke County. Another 203 were registered in Roanoke and 81 were registered in Salem.

The Virginia Automobile Dealers Association said 371 cars were domestic models and 222 were imports. - Staff report