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) stood at -6.0 in November 2025, versus -4.0 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 345 observations in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The series covers the time period stretching from January 1997 to November 2025.
History. Take a look at a few simple statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index had an average value of 14.6; it peaked at 45.0 in May 2021; it recorded a minimum of -34.0 in November 2008.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | -10.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | -4.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | -6.0 |
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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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