Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capital expenditures: Future (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. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capital expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was -1.0 in September 2026, compared to 4.0 in August.
Sample. In the monthly series displayed in the figure, there are 353 data points. The series covers the time span stretching from May 1997 to September 2026.
History. Take a look at a few summary statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 14.2; it hit a maximum of 42.0 in May 2021; it recorded a minimum of -31.0 in November 2008.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | -6.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 4.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -1.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will capital expenditures 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 | 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
Discover the other time series included in this data set.