Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Shipments: Current (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. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for shipments (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 11.0 in August 2026, compared to 8.0 in July 2026.
Sample. In the monthly series plotted above, there are a total of 396 data points. The period covered by the series goes from January 1993 to August 2026.
History. Here are a few summary statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 2.8; it hit a minimum of -70.0 in April 2020; it reached a maximum of 37.0 in March 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | 4.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 8.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | 11.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did shipments 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 | 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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