U.S. inventories rose 0.3 pct in March

WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- U.S. business inventories rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in March to $1.58 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

Sales rose 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted $1.241 trillion.

Manufacturers' and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,580.2 billion, up 0.3 percent from February 2012 and up 6.6 percent from March 2011.

The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of March was 1.27. The March 2011 ratio was 1.26.