Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Shipments: 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 shipments (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -1.0 in September 2026, compared to 9.0 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 395 data points in the monthly series presented in the graph above. The series covers the time period stretching from November 1993 to September 2026.
History. Have a look at some statistics we calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 2.7; it recorded a bottom of -59.0 in January 2009; it hit a peak of 46.0 in March 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 8.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 9.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -1.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did shipments 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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