Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Vendor lead times: 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 vendor lead times (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 10.0 in September 2025, versus 9.0 in August.
Sample. There are 266 observations overall in the monthly series shown in the chart above. The time period covered by the series is from January 1996 to September 2025.
History. Take a look at a few descriptive statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index averaged 6.7; it recorded its highest level of 73.0 in May 2021; it hit a minimum of -32.0 in February 2022.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 6.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | 9.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | 10.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did vendor lead times 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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