Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Vendor lead times: 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 vendor lead times (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 15.0 in May 2026, compared to 16.0 in April.
Sample. There are 361 observations in the monthly time series displayed in the chart above. The time period covered by the series stretches from January 1996 to May 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at some simple statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index recorded a bottom of -32.0 in December 2022; it reached its highest level of 73.0 in May 2021; it had an average value of 6.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 13.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 16.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 15.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did vendor lead times 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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