US business inventories rebound in April

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Employee organizes treated lumber at Maze Lumber in Peru, Illinois.

U.S. business inventories rebounded in April, but a slight downward revision to retail stocks excluding motor vehicles suggested inventory investment’s contribution to second-quarter economic growth could be modest.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday business inventories increased 0.3 percent after slipping 0.1 percent in March. Business inventories were previously reported to have been unchanged in March.

April’s rise in inventories, which are a key component of gross domestic product, was in line with economists’ expectations. Retail inventories increased 0.5 percent in April instead of gaining 0.6 percent as reported in an advance estimate published last month.

Retail inventories fell 0.7 percent in March.

Motor vehicle inventories rose 0.7 percent in April and not 0.6 percent as reported last month. Auto inventories declined 0.9 percent in March.

Retail inventories excluding autos, which go into the calculation of GDP, increased 0.4 percent in April rather than the previously reported 0.5 percent rise. They fell 0.6 percent in March.

Inventory investment added just over one-tenth of a percentage point to the economy’s 2.2 percent annualized growth pace during the January-March period. Economists expect the pace of inventory accumulation to remain moderate in the second quarter.

Business sales rose 0.4 percent in April after increasing 0.6 percent in March. At April’s sales pace, it would take 1.35 months for businesses to clear shelves, unchanged from March.