Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Inventories: 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 collected by the Federal Reserve in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for inventories (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 14.3 in September 2025, compared to -7.7 in August.
Sample. In this monthly time series, there are 689 observations in total. The series covers the span of time stretching from May 1968 to September 2025.
History. Here’s a quick look at a few statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean of -5.2; it recorded its highest level of 29.0 in March 1973; it registered a minimum of -48.0 in March 1975.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-31 | 0.0 |
| 2025-08-31 | -7.7 |
| 2025-09-30 | 14.3 |
Hint. An advantage of our web site is that we provide rich metadata. Check it below to delve deeper into the attributes of the series that you use in your research.
Not for investment purposes. Data available on FetchSeries are not intended for investment purposes or as a basis for making financial decisions. Users should ask for professional advice and do independent analysis before making any financial commitments.
Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did inventories 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) |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.