Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Inventories of raw materials: 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. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for inventories of raw materials (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 6.0 in September 2026, compared to 9.0 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 353 records in the monthly time series shown in the chart above. The period covered by the series goes from May 1997 to September 2026.
History. Check out a few summary statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of 14.7; it reached its lowest level of -25.0 in July 2021; it achieved a maximum of 36.0 in December 2008.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 1.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 9.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 6.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did raw materials 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 | 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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