U.S. inventories fall 1.1 percent in January

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - U.S. business inventories fell 1.1 percent in January, a government report showed on Thursday, as companies scaled back output to address sagging demand.

The Commerce Department said December's inventories were revised to show a 1.6 percent drop, previously reported as a 1.3 percent decline. Motor vehicle and parts inventories dived 4.4 percent in January, the steepest drop since July 2005, it said.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast business inventories falling 1.0 percent in January.

The Commerce Department said business sales dropped 1.0 percent in January after a revised 3.4 percent decline in December, which was previously reported as a 3.2 percent fall.

That left the inventories-to-sales ratio, which measures how long it would take to empty shelves at the current pace of sales, at 1.43 months' worth, unchanged from the prior month.

Compared to January last year, business inventories were 1.5 percent lower, while sales plummeted 14 percent, the Commerce Department said. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani, Editing by Andrea Ricci)