Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Capital expenditures: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - NY FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Empire State Manufacturing Survey (NY FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the State of New York, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 13.1 in April 2026, compared to 21.6 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 298 observations in the monthly series displayed in the plot above. The period covered by the series is from July 2001 to April 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at a few statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 18.7; it reached its minimum of -19.1 in March 2009; it reached its highest level of 42.3 in December 2003.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-02-28 | 18.2 |
| 2026-03-31 | 21.6 |
| 2026-04-30 | 13.1 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will capital expenditures increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading indicator of the business cycle |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Seasonally adjusted | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of New York |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Free use subject to conditions |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.