Inventories for businesses in the communications equipment manufacturing, defense industry increase $6 million, or 0.9 percent, to $711 million in December, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The previous month saw inventories for the same products decrease by 0.6 percent.

The Census Bureau provides monthly broad-based data on current economic conditions as well as indicators of future production commitments in manufacturing. The statistics are a good indicator for future economic conditions.

Data is collected from approximately 3,100 companies representing manufacturers with $500 million or more in annual shipments. It is broken down into 89 industry categories of units that may be divisions of diversified companies, homogeneous companies or single-unit manufacturers.

The statistics include the value of shipments as provided by manufacturers, new orders (net of cancellations), end-of-month order backlog/unfilled orders, end-of-month total inventory, materials and supplies, work in progress, and finished goods inventories at current market value or costs.