Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Inventories of raw materials: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - 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 unadjusted diffusion index for inventories of raw materials (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 5.0 in September 2026, compared to 10.0 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 353 records in the monthly series displayed in the graph above. The time period covered by the series extends from May 1997 to September 2026.
History. Here are a few simple statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index hit a minimum of -25.0 in July 2021; it hit a peak of 35.0 in December 2008; it had a mean value of 14.8.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | -1.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 10.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 5.00000 |
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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 | No |
| 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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