Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Equipment and software expenditures: Future (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 Non-Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about nonmanufacturing firms based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for equipment and software expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 6.0 in September 2026, versus 14.0 in August 2026.
Sample. There are 190 data points overall in the monthly series shown in the plot above. The time range covered by the series goes from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few simple statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index registered a minimum of -7.0 in April 2020; it reached its maximum of 44.0 in August 2021; it had a mean of 19.9.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 11.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 14.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 6.00000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will equipment and software expenditures increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading 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) |
| Other information | Not available |
Series in the same data set
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