US businesses raised their stockpiles for the third month in a row in July as sales surged, government figures showed today.
Business inventories climbed 0.4 per cent, steeper than expected by economists, the commerce department said. Stockpiles had declined for 15 months in row until April.
Business sales surged 1.2 per cent, it said.
The figures showed it would take just 1.35 months to exhaust the backlog of inventories at the July sales pace.
In June, business inventories rose 0.3 per cent while sales increased 0.3 per cent, revised figures showed.
AFP
