The October 1998 ratio was 1.39. January 14, February 14, March 15, April 14, May 12, June 14, July 17, August 14, September 15, October 16, November 15, and December 14. Adjusted data were revised due to concurrent seasonal adjustment. No revisions were made to Not Adjusted data.
Inventories are on a non-LIFO basis as of the end of the month.
Concurrent seasonal adjustment is being used to adjust all sales, shipment and inventory estimates. Concurrent seasonal adjustment uses all available unadjusted estimates as input to the X-11 program. The factors derived from the program are applied to the current and previous month estimates and for retail and wholesale estimates a year ago as well. This explains the revision to retail estimates from a year ago. Manufacturers sales refers to the value of shipments by manufacturers.