Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Local business conditions: 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 based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for local business conditions (share of CEOs seeing a recent improvement minus share reporting a worsening) stood at -10.0 in October 2026, versus -6.0 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 191 records overall in the monthly time series shown in the chart above. The series covers the time span extending from December 2010 to October 2026.
History. Take a look at a few simple statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index registered a minimum of -72.0 in April 2020; it hit a peak of 32.0 in April 2017; it was equal on average to -0.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 1.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -6.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | -10.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did local business conditions improve or worsen 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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