Business inventories rose in January

WASHINGTON, March 11 (UPI) -- Manufacturing and trade business inventories rose 0.9 percent in January, slightly higher than economists' expected, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Inventories rose to $1.45 trillion, a 9.1 percent increase from a year ago. Trade sales and manufacturers' shipments for the month rose 2 percent from December to $1.17 trillion, a 10.8 percent jump from January 2010.

The inventory-sales ratio for all business dropped slightly from 1.25 in December to 1.23 in January.

The ratio indicates how long it would take to sell all inventory at current prices and attempts to indicate whether inventories are rising due to an anticipation of sales or, conversely, a decline in sales that is causing an inventory backlog.