Business inventories were up 0.3% to $1.967 trillion in September, while sales were 0.4% higher at $1.468 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Inventories were up 0.5% in August, while sales grew 0.5%.
On a year-over-year basis, inventories climbed 4.4% over the same month in 2017, while sales jumped 6.6% in that period.
The total business inventories/sales ratio, based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of September, was 1.34, unchanged from the previous month's 1.34 ratio. The inventory/sales ratio for September 2017 was 1.37.
Economists polled by IFR Markets expected a 0.3% increase in inventories.
