During the first three months of the year firms produced more than consumers could buy, and so built up huge stocks of unsold goods.

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That would put still further pressure on companies to slash output and prices in order to get rid of the mountains of unsold goods now cluttering stores and showrooms.

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Inventories did decline, which means businesses are selling and have less goods sitting unsold in warehouses.

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He explains that packaged goods in rural marketplaces typically were the unsold or damaged products that jobbers brought inland, which often prompted suspicion about their quality.

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This is a bad analogy because competitive markets require that there be winners and losers and, in this example, it is a good outcome for an inferior car manufacturer's goods to remain on the forecourts, unsold and unwanted.

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