Wholesale sales declined 0.5% to $63.0 billion in December, the first decrease in three months. Lower sales were recorded in five of seven subsectors, representing 65% of total wholesale sales. The personal and household goods and the miscellaneous subsectors led the decline.

In volume terms, wholesale sales declined 0.9%.

In the fourth quarter, current dollar wholesale sales increased 1.1% while constant dollar sales increased 0.7%. For both current and constant dollars, this marked the seventh consecutive quarterly increase.