Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Local business conditions: 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. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for local business conditions (share of CEOs seeing a recent improvement minus share reporting a worsening) was -12.0 in September 2025, versus -4.0 in August.
Sample. This monthly series has a total of 136 observations. The time period covered by the series goes from February 2010 to September 2025.
History. Here's a snapshot of some simple statistics we calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index averaged 0.4; it reached a trough of -72.0 in April 2020; it hit a peak of 32.0 in April 2017.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | -14.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -4.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | -12.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did local business conditions improve or worsen 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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