Fifth District Survey of Non-Manufacturing Activity: Equipment and software expenditures: Future (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 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 unadjusted diffusion index for equipment and software expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 4.0 in September 2026, compared to 14.0 in August 2026.
Sample. In the monthly time series displayed in the figure, there are 190 records. The span of time covered by the series stretches from December 2010 to September 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at a few simple statistics we computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index reached its lowest level of -5.0 in April 2020; it reached its maximum of 42.0 in November 2021; it had a mean value of 19.9.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 10.0000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 14.0000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 4.00000 |
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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 | 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) |
| Other information | Not available |
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