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 survey data about manufacturers based 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 -3.0 in January 2026, versus -5.0 in December 2025.
Sample. In the monthly series displayed in the chart, there are 347 records. The time range covered by the series goes from January 1997 to January 2026.
History. Have a look at a few statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 14.5; it reached a trough of -34.0 in November 2008; it hit a peak of 45.0 in May 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | -6.0 |
| 2025-12-31 | -5.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | -3.0 |
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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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