Inventories held by U.S. businesses on shelves and backlots rose by 0.4 percent in January from the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

U.S. manufacturers' and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of 1.3101 trillion dollars, up 0.4 percent from December 2005 and up 4.0 percent from January 2005.

Analysts had been expecting a gain of 0.3 percent in business inventories for January.

Meanwhile, business sales, or distributive trade sales and manufacturers' shipments, were estimated at 1.0595 trillion dollars, up 1.3 percent from December 2005 and up 8.5 percent from January 2005.

That left the total business inventories-to-sales ratio, a measure of how long it would take to deplete stocks at the current sales pace, to a record low of 1.24 months. The ratio in January 2005 was 1.29.

Rising inventories are seen by economists either as a sign of confidence in future demand or as a result of an unexpected decline in sales. Analysts look at the inventories-to-sales ratio to determine how to interpret the data.

Source: Xinhua