Comparable data are shown for the prior 12 months, in addition to the percent change from the previous month, the same month in the previous year, and cumulative months for the current year compared to similar months for the previous year. National sales and inventories estimates are shown adjusted and not adjusted for seasonal variations, holiday and trading-day differences. Inventories data contain no significant trading-day differences. In an effort to reduce costs and to provide more timely access to the data, information from this report will only be available on the Internet beginning with January 1998 data.
Explanatory text accompanies the data.