By Ovunc Kutlu
ISTANBUL (AA) – Retail inventories in the US rose higher than market expectation in December, official data revealed on Thursday.
The figure, which measures the change in the total value of goods held in inventory by the nation's retailers, rose 0.5% to $742.2 billion last month.
The expectation for the figure was to show a 0.2% monthly increase.
Retail inventories in November was revised down from a monthly gain of 0.1% to virtually unchanged, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said in a statement.
On an annual basis, retail inventories in December soared 13.9% from the same month of 2021.