Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capital expenditures: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Richmond FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -16.0 in September 2025, compared to -23.0 in August.
Sample. There are 136 observations overall in the monthly series presented in the graph above. The series covers the time range extending from February 2010 to September 2025.
History. Have a look at a few statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to 8.9; it reached a maximum of 29.0 in September 2014; it recorded a bottom of -31.0 in May 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -16.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -23.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -16.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did capital expenditures 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 Richmond |
| 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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