But sales at hardware stores, rather than diminishing, basically kept pace, rising to $27 billion from $16 billion.
While the growth of total health spending slowed in 2008, Medicare spending increased at a brisk pace, rising 8.6 percent, to a total of $469 billion, the report said.
China's GDP officially continues to grow at a robust pace, rising by 7.9% in the year to the second quarter.
The inventory-to-sales ratio, which measures how long it would take businesses to exhaust their inventories at the current sales pace, rose to 1.36 months in November.
Yu Song, a Goldman Sachs economist, calculated that after adjusting for inflation, Chinese investment spending had grown in May at its fastest pace, rising close to 50percentt from May of last year.
Yu Song, a Goldman Sachs economist, calculated that after adjusting for inflation, Chinese investment spending had grown in May at a breakneck pace, rising close to 50percentt from May of last year.
But in recent months, even as the supply of new homes continued to decline and the sales pace rose, the average age of completed homes on the market began to rise.
Although clean, warm plates were stacked on our table before each course, when the restaurant's pace rose to frantic levels, niceties like wiping the table clean were forgotten.
The inventories to sales ratio, which measures how long it would take to deplete stocks totally at the current sales pace, rose modestly, to 1.34 months, up from 1.33 months in July.
The inventory-to-sales ratio, which measures how long it would take businesses to exhaust their inventories at the current sales pace, rose to 1.36 months in November, the highest since April 1999.
