Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Inventories of finished goods: 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 inventories of finished goods (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 3.0 in February 2026, versus 0.0 in January.
Sample. There are 348 data points overall in the monthly series shown in the chart above. The series covers the span of time stretching from January 1997 to February 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at some descriptive statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index reached a minimum of -44.0 in August 2000; it achieved a maximum of 16.0 in August 2015; it had an average value of -3.2.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 2.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | 0.0 |
| 2026-02-28 | 3.0 |
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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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
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