Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Business services expenditures: 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 Non-Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on a sample of nonmanufacturing firms surveyed by the Fed, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for business services expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -8.0 in September 2026, compared to -2.0 in August 2026.
Sample. The monthly time series presented in the graph has 190 observations. The series covers the span of time going from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here are a few summary statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index hit a trough of -48.0 in April 2020; it reached a maximum of 24.0 in January 2020; it had a mean of 3.9.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | -3.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | -2.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -8.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did business services expenditures 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) |
| Other information | Not available |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.