Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capital expenditures: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - 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 unadjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 0.0 in October 2026, versus -2.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In the monthly time series shown in the figure, there are 354 records overall. The span of time covered by the series extends from May 1997 to October 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some summary statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index hit a minimum of -34.0 in November 2008; it recorded its maximum of 45.0 in May 2021; it had an average value of 14.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 1.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -2.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 0 |
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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 | No |
| 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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