Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Shipments: 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 a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for shipments (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 9.0 in August 2026, compared to 8.0 in July.
Sample. There are 396 observations overall in the monthly series presented in the graph above. The series covers the time span extending from January 1993 to August 2026.
History. Have a look at a few descriptive statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 2.7; it reached its minimum of -59.0 in January 2009; it attained a maximum of 46.0 in March 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | 3.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 8.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | 9.0 |
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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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
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