Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Business services expenditures: Future (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. According to survey data about nonmanufacturing firms based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for business services expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was -2.0 in September 2026, compared to 1.0 in August.
Sample. There are 190 observations in the monthly series presented in the figure above. The series covers the time period extending from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index averaged 8.5; it hit a peak of 29.0 in June 2018; it registered a minimum of -39.0 in April 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 5.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 1.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -2.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will business services expenditures 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 | 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 |
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