Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capital expenditures: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Richmond FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -5.0 in February 2026, compared to -16.0 in the previous month.
Sample. This monthly time series has 184 records overall. The series covers the time period extending from February 2010 to February 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some summary statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its lowest level of -31.0 in May 2020; it reached its highest level of 29.0 in September 2014; it had an average value of 8.8.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | -1.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | -16.0 |
| 2026-02-28 | -5.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did capital expenditures increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident indicator of the business cycle |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Seasonally adjusted | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Not copyrightable under U.S. law |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
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