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 based 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) was 0.0 in October 2025, versus 14.3 in September 2025.
Sample. This monthly time series has a total of 690 observations. The series covers the time range going from May 1968 to October 2025.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few summary statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index had an average value of -5.2; it reached a trough of -48.0 in March 1975; it hit a peak of 29.0 in March 1973.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-08-31 | -7.7 |
| 2025-09-30 | 14.3 |
| 2025-10-31 | 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) |