The Commerce Department announced on Wednesday that business inventories were flat m-o-m in August, following a revised 0.3 m-o-m advance in July (originally a gain of 0.4 percent m-o-m).

That was below economists’ forecast of a 0.2 percent m-o-m increase.

According to the report, inventories at wholesalers increased 0.2 percent m-o-m in August, while retail inventories dropped 0.1 percent m-o-m and stocks at manufacturers were unchanged m-o-m.

Retail inventories excluding autos, which go into the calculation of GDP, decreased 0.2 percent m-o-m, following a 0.3 percent gain in the previous month.

In y-o-y terms, business inventories climbed 4.2 percent in August.