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. According to survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for inventories of raw materials (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 33.0 in November 2025, compared to 19.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 345 data points in total. The series covers the span of time stretching from January 1997 to November 2025.
History. Here's a peek at some summary statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index averaged 15.0; it recorded a bottom of -25.0 in July 2021; it reached a maximum of 35.0 in January 2009.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | 14.0 |
| 2025-10-31 | 19.0 |
| 2025-11-30 | 33.0 |
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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) |
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