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WASHINGTON—U.S. wholesale inventories increased strongly in November, lifting the inventories-to-sales ratio to the highest level in nearly 2–1/2 years, as higher borrowing costs depressed sales.
The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that wholesale inventories rose 1.0 percent as previously reported last month. Stocks at wholesalers increased 0.6 percent in October. Economists polled by Reuters had expected that inventories would be unrevised.
Inventories are a key part of gross domestic product. Wholesale inventories accelerated 20.9 percent in November on a year-on-year basis. Still, the pace of inventory accumulation has decelerated considerably from the robust pace in late 2021 and early 2022 in part because of improved supply chains and ebbing demand for goods as the Federal Reserve aggressively raises interest rates to combat inflation....