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. Based on firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for local business conditions (share of CEOs seeing a recent improvement minus share reporting a worsening) stood at -12.0 in September 2025, compared to -4.0 in August.
Sample. There are 136 observations in the monthly time series presented in the plot above. The series covers the time range extending from February 2010 to September 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few descriptive statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 0.4; it registered a minimum of -72.0 in April 2020; it hit a maximum of 32.0 in April 2017.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -14.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -4.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -12.0 |
Suggestion. To simplify exploration, we group series into data sets and worksheets. By scrolling down, you will find how we arranged further information related to the statistics provided here.
Not for investment purposes. Content disseminated on FetchSeries is not suitable for investment purposes or as a basis for making financial decisions. Users should seek expert advice and do independent analysis before pledging money to any investment.
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) |