The U.S. Census Bureau released its monthly wholesale trade report for March on May 8, showing industry sales increase at a steady pace month-over-month and year-over-year, though with considerably less growth than a month earlier.

The figure showed that March sales of merchant wholesalers — except manufacturers’ sales branches and officers, after adjustments or season variations and trading difference but not for price changes — were $697.9 billion. That was up 0.6% from the revised February figure and up 6.1% year-over-year.

It was a sizable slowdown from February’s downwardly revised monthly sales growth of 2.0%.

March durable goods wholesale trade sales ticked up 1.0% month-over-month and jumped 8.5% year-over-year, while nondurable goods sales increased 0.3% month-over-month and increased 3.9% year-over-year.

Inventories

The report showed that total inventories for merchant wholesalers ended March at $907.5 billion, up 0.4% month-over-month. Year-over-year, March inventories were up 2.2%.

U.S. Wholesale Inventories Month-Over-Month

source: tradingeconomics.com

Inventories/Sales Ratio

The March inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers was 1.30 month-over-month, unchanged from February’s 1.30 and down from January’s 1.33.

Table

Here’s how seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales of durable and nondurable goods fared in March on a month-over-month basis and year-over-year basis.