Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) released its monthly TRENDS report, showing average sales for HARDI distributor members increased by 12.2 percent in February 2018.

The average annualized growth for the 12 months through February 2018 is 6.7 percent.

“Sales were light last February when it was warmer than normal in six of our seven economic regions,” said HARDI Market Research & Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. “Five of our regions experienced more heating degree days in February this year than 2017.”

“The U.S. economy is surging with US Gross Domestic Product for the fourth quarter of 2017 up by 2.5 percent over the previous year, while U.S. Industrial Production was up 1.8 percent year over year in December,” said HARDI Senior Economist Connor Lokar. “We can expect a strong macroeconomy in the coming one to two quarters, however, that comes with its challenges as inflation is picking up and the Federal Reserve has matched that with ongoing interest rate increases, most recently another 25 basis point increase this week.”

“The Days Sales Outstanding, a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is near 46 days,” said Loftus. “This is more than a day faster than 2016 and almost two days better than 2015.”

HARDI members do not receive financial compensation in exchange for their monthly sales data and can discontinue their participation without prior notice or penalty. Participation is voluntary, and the depth of market coverage varies from region to region.\

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