Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capital expenditures: Future (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 recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 4.0 in October 2026, versus -1.0 in September 2026.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are a total of 354 data points. The series covers the period extending from May 1997 to October 2026.
History. Take a look at a few descriptive statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index hit a maximum of 42.0 in May 2021; it reached its minimum of -31.0 in November 2008; it had a mean value of 14.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 4.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -1.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 4.00000 |
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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 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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