Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Local business conditions: Future (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 future improvement minus share forecasting a worsening) was 5.0 in October 2026, compared to 6.0 in September 2026.
Sample. There are 191 records overall in the monthly series presented in the figure above. The time span covered by the series extends from December 2010 to October 2026.
History. Check out some summary statistics we calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached a minimum of -35.0 in October 2022; it reached its maximum of 54.0 in February 2011; it was equal on average to 21.0.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 11.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 6.00000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 5.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will local business conditions improve or worsen 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 | 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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