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 firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -7.0 in September 2026, compared to -5.0 in August 2026.
Sample. This monthly time series has 190 observations in total. The time range covered by the series extends from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index hit a maximum of 30.0 in September 2014; it recorded a bottom of -30.0 in May 2020; it had a mean of 8.3.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 0 |
| 2026-08-31 | -5.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -7.00000 |
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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) |
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