Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: General business activity: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - 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 survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for general business activity (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 25.0 in October 2026, compared to 44.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are a total of 702 observations. The series covers the time range going from May 1968 to October 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at a few statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded its maximum of 67.0 in March 1973; it registered a minimum of -76.0 in December 1974; it had an average value of 9.0.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-31 | 45.8000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 44.0000 |
| 2026-10-31 | 25.0000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did general business activity 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 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) |
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