According to the data provided by the Commerce Department, the Inventories at U. S. wholesalers fell by 0.2% in the month of January while there was a sharp rise in the sales figures of January. This decline in the wholesale inventories came as a surprise as the analysts estimated a growth of 0.2% for the month of January.

The decline in the inventories at wholesalers for January was reported the second consecutive monthly decline. In the month of December last year, the wholesale inventories were reported declined by 1%. The decline also shows that the companies found it very difficult to keep pace with the rising demand.

The sales in the month of January grew sharply by 1.3%. This is reported the tenth consecutive monthly growth for sales figures. Also this is the highest growth in sales since November 2009.

The Commerce Department said that the U. S. economy grew by 5.9% annually in the fourth quarter of the fiscal. This was the fastest growth rate in more than six years in the fourth quarter.

However, the rising orders signal that the production will keep increasing in the near future and the increased production would help the inventories to be in line with sales.