Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Inventories of raw materials: Current (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. Based on firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for inventories of raw materials (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 14.0 in September 2025, compared to 24.0 in August 2025.
Sample. In the monthly time series presented in the graph, there are a total of 259 records. The time range covered by the series extends from January 1997 to September 2025.
History. Check out some simple statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 15.0; it reached its highest level of 35.0 in February 2008; it registered a minimum of -25.0 in July 2021.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 16.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | 24.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | 14.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did raw materials inventories increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident 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) |