U.S. manufacturers\' and trade inventories in August rose 0.5 percent from the previous month, with businesses stockpiles increasing for a 20th consecutive month, the Department of Commerce said Friday. The August inventory figure of 1.536 trillion U.S. dollars also represented a 10.5 percent increase from a year earlier, the department said in a report. The total business inventories-to-sales ratio stood at 1.28 by the end of August, slightly lower than the level of 1.29 one year ago, noted the report. It is normally interpreted as a positive sign of the economy when businesses increase their inventories, but some economists held that businesses might slash inventories in the near future if the economic growth pace slows.