Answer:
$1,280 million
Explanation:
The change between the opening inventory balance and the ending inventory balance for a period is as a result of the purchases of inventory and the sale of inventory during the period.
All of these elements are related as;
Opening inventory + purchases - cost of goods sold = ending inventory
As such, to estimate the merchandise inventory purchased,
let the purchase for the period be T
1500 + T - 880 = 1900 (All amounts in millions of $)
T = 1900 + 880 - 1500
= 1280
The merchandise purchases for the third quarter is $1,280 million.