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 survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for inventories of finished goods (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 5.0 in February 2026, compared to 0.0 in January.
Sample. There are 348 records in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The series covers the span of time stretching from January 1997 to February 2026.
History. Take a look at a few summary statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index hit a trough of -46.0 in August 2000; it reached a maximum of 15.0 in May 2015; it was equal on average to -3.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 2.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | 0.0 |
| 2026-02-28 | 5.0 |
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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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