WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - U.S. wholesale inventories shrank for the seventh month in a row in March to $411.7 billion, their lowest since November 2007, government data showed on Friday.
Inventories dropped 1.6 percent after falling a revised 1.7 percent in February, which the Commerce Department said was the largest decline since it began keeping records in 1992.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected wholesalers' stocks to only drop 1.0 percent.
Sales also tumbled, by 2.4 percent, to $310.9 billion, which was their lowest level since November 2005.
That pushed the inventory-to-sales-ratio, or the pace it would take to deplete current stocks, up to 1.32 months' worth in March from February's 1.31 months. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by James Dalgleish)