Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Capital expenditures: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Third Federal Reserve District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 34.9 in October 2026, compared to 37.1 in September.
Sample. There are 702 records in the monthly time series presented in the plot above. The time period covered by the series stretches from May 1968 to October 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few descriptive statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index attained a maximum of 51.1 in March 1973; it hit a minimum of -18.3 in December 2008; it had a mean of 18.7.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 48.2000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 37.1000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 34.9000 |
Nugget of wisdom. We group series into data sets and worksheets to make your life easier. If you navigate further down, you will find how we structured further information linked to the statistics provided here.
Not for investment purposes. Time series and other data published on this web site are not intended for investment purposes or as a basis for making financial decisions. Users should ask for professional advice and do their own independent due diligence before taking any financial risk.
Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will capital 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 Philadelphia |
| 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
Discover the other time series included in this data set.