Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Inventories of finished goods: 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 inventories of finished goods (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 3.0 in October 2026, versus 1.0 in September.
Sample. There are 354 data points in the monthly series displayed in the graph above. The period covered by the series extends from May 1997 to October 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few summary statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -3.1; it reached a trough of -46.0 in August 2000; it reached its highest level of 15.0 in May 2015.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 0 |
| 2026-09-30 | 1.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 3.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will finished goods inventories 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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