Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: General business activity: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to survey data about manufacturers based in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for general business activity (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 25.0 in September 2025, compared to 0.0 in the previous month.
Sample. In this monthly series, there are 689 observations overall. The time period covered by the series extends from May 1968 to September 2025.
History. Have a look at some simple statistics calculated on the entire sample: the diffusion index recorded a maximum of 67.0 in March 1973; it reached a trough of -76.0 in December 1974; it was equal on average to 8.9.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 6.7 |
| 2025-08-31 | 0.0 |
| 2025-09-30 | 25.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did general business activity 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 Philadelphia |
| 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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