Wholesale inventories at 16-month low
Government says inventories fell 1.6% in March to their lowest level since Nov. 2007.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Wholesale inventories shrank for the seventh month in a row in March to $411.7 billion, their lowest since November 2007, government data showed on Friday.
Inventories dropped 1.6% after falling a revised 1.7% in February, which the Commerce Department said was the largest decline since it began keeping records in 1992.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected wholesalers' stocks to only drop 1%.
Sales also tumbled, by 2.4%, to $310.9 billion, which was their lowest level since November 2005.
That pushed the inventory-to-sales-ratio, or the pace it would take to deplete current stocks, up to 1.32 months' worth in March from February's 1.31 months. 
