Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey: Physical plant expenditures: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Philly FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey (Philly FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about nonmanufacturing firms in the Third Federal Reserve District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for physical plant expenditures (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 22.9 in September 2026, versus -0.6 in August.
Sample. There are 187 observations in the monthly time series shown in the figure above. The series covers the span of time stretching from March 2011 to September 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index averaged 12.5; it registered a minimum of -40.3 in April 2020; it recorded its highest level of 36.6 in May 2011.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 14.1000 |
| 2026-08-31 | -0.600000 |
| 2026-09-30 | 22.9000 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did capital expenditures on physical plant 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 | Yes |
| 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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