Following two months of increases, wholesale sales declined 1.2% to $62.0 billion in September, the second decline of 2017. Decreases were recorded in five of seven subsectors, led by the personal and household goods and the food, beverage and tobacco subsectors.

In volume terms, wholesale sales declined 1.1%.

In the third quarter, current dollar wholesale sales increased 1.5% while constant dollar sales increased 2.0%. For both current and constant dollars, this marked the sixth consecutive quarterly increase.

The personal and household goods subsector reported the largest decline in dollar terms in September, dropping 4.8% to $8.6 billion. This was the first decline since November 2016 and more than offsets the 3.2% increase in August. All but one industry in this subsector reported declines in September, led by the textile, clothing and footwear industry.