A note to a recent annual report issued by General Motors Corporation includes the following information:

a. Does the company's use of three different inventory methods violate the accounting principle of consistency? Defend your answer.

b. Had the LIFO assumption not been used, would the company's gross profit reported in its income statement have been higher or lower? Explain.

c. Based on the information from the company's annual report, do its inventory replacement costs appear to be rising or falling? Explain.

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inventories are valued using various cost methods. The percentage of year-end inventories valued using each of these methods is: LIFO...... FIFO and Average Cost.. If the LIFO method of valuation had not been used, total inventories would have been $1.8 billion more than reported. 84% 16%