Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Inventories of raw materials: 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 based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for inventories of raw materials (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 0.0 in May 2026, compared to 3.0 in the previous month.
Sample. This monthly time series has 351 observations overall. The series covers the period stretching from January 1997 to May 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of some summary statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its minimum of -26.0 in May 2021; it reached its maximum of 14.0 in April 2015; it averaged -2.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | -3.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 3.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 0.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will raw materials 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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