Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Regional general business activity: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about nonmanufacturing firms collected by the Federal Reserve in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for regional general business activity (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was -2.7 in September 2026, compared to -8.8 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 187 records overall in the monthly series presented in the chart above. The period covered by the series is from March 2011 to September 2026.
History. Take a look at some statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its lowest level of -39.1 in April 2020; it hit a peak of 81.5 in March 2012; it averaged 29.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 15.4000 |
| 2026-08-31 | -8.80000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -2.70000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will regional general business activity 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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
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