Inventories-to-Sales Ratio
The inventories-to-sales ratio measures how many months of sales US businesses hold in stock across manufacturing, wholesale, and retail. A reading of 1.4 means firms are sitting on 1.4 months of sales. It is a clean window into whether the economy is overstocked or running lean.
Latest reading
As of May 2026, Inventories/Sales (Inventories/sales ratio) stands at 1.28 — down from 1.30 the prior reading. A rising ratio often precedes recessions — sales fall while inventories lag, leaving shelves overstocked and production cuts ahead. A falling ratio signals strong demand relative to supply and tends to drive restocking. The series spiked above 1.45 in 2009 and briefly far higher in 2020; the 12-month average smooths the monthly noise. Series history runs from 1993 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-07-24 · Open ↓Close ↑
Inventories/sales ratio
Next release: Aug 14, 2026
Full history
Methodology & data
Inventories/Sales is sourced from Census via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (Census Bureau via FRED (ISRATIO), monthly, seasonally adjusted). We pull the complete history, chart it on a monthly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-07-24. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Inventories-to-Sales Ratio?
The inventories-to-sales ratio measures how many months of sales US businesses hold in stock across manufacturing, wholesale, and retail. A reading of 1.4 means firms are sitting on 1.4 months of sales. It is a clean window into whether the economy is overstocked or running lean.
How do you read Inventories/Sales?
A rising ratio often precedes recessions — sales fall while inventories lag, leaving shelves overstocked and production cuts ahead. A falling ratio signals strong demand relative to supply and tends to drive restocking. The series spiked above 1.45 in 2009 and briefly far higher in 2020; the 12-month average smooths the monthly noise.
Where does the Inventories/Sales data come from?
Census Bureau via FRED (ISRATIO), monthly, seasonally adjusted. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/inventories-sales-ratio.csv.
How often is Inventories/Sales updated?
Inventories/Sales is a monthly series from Census, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
thetrading.tools PRO
Talk to this data with your AI
PRO is an MCP server that plugs Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any AI agent straight into everything on this site — the live market scores, ~90 economic indicators with full histories, and every signal study. Ask a market question; your AI answers from our data, dated and sourced.
Cancel anytime