Average Fed Mfg Survey: General business activity: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - FSR - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Average Fed Mfg Survey (FetchSeries Research)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on an average of regional Federal Reserve manufacturing surveys, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for general business activity stood at 14.1 (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) in September 2026, compared to 17.5 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 268 observations in the monthly time series presented in the chart above. The time span covered by the series goes from June 2004 to September 2026.
History. Have a look at a few statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 3.8; it achieved a maximum of 40.2 in April 2021; it hit a minimum of -66.6 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 14.9500 |
| 2026-08-31 | 17.4750 |
| 2026-09-30 | 14.0750 |
Tip. We categorize indicators into worksheets and datasets for our users' convenience. By scrolling down, you will discover how we arranged further material related to the statistics published here.
Not for investment purposes. Any financial data hosted on FetchSeries are not intended for investment purposes or any other financial decision. Users should ask for expert advice and do independent analysis before taking any financial risk.
Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did general business activity increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident indicator of the business cycle |
| Seasonally adjusted | No |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Rescaling | None |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | FetchSeries Research calculations on Federal Reserve data |
| Source type | Data research lab |
| Data licence | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) + FetchSeries disclaimers |
| Other information | Arithmetic average across 4 regional Federal Reserve manufacturing surveys |
| FSR temporal aggregation code | LM01 |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.