Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Inventories: Current (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. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for inventories (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 1.4 in March 2026, versus -0.2 in February 2026.
Sample. There are 695 records overall in the monthly time series shown in the graph above. The period covered by the series is from May 1968 to March 2026.
History. Check out a few descriptive statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a minimum of -51.0 in March 2009; it hit a maximum of 27.9 in March 1973; it was equal on average to -5.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-31 | -8.4 |
| 2026-02-28 | -0.2 |
| 2026-03-31 | 1.4 |
Heads-up. Our metadata often include references to the sources of the data we provide. You can use these references to find more details.
Not for investment purposes. Data and any other information published on FetchSeries are not intended for investment purposes or as a basis for financial-decision making. Users should ask for professional advice and do independent analysis before making any financial commitments.
Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did inventories 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 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.