Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Inventories: 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 inventories (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 0.0 in March 2026, compared to 3.7 in February 2026.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 695 records. The time period covered by the series stretches from May 1968 to March 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some summary statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded a maximum of 29.0 in March 1973; it recorded a bottom of -48.0 in March 1975; it had a mean of -5.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-31 | -7.1 |
| 2026-02-28 | 3.7 |
| 2026-03-31 | 0.0 |
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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 | 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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