For immediate release
Contact: Daneil Mazone, Media Relations, 215-574-7163
Philadelphia, PA — In January of each year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia revises historical data for the Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey after calculating new seasonal adjustment factors. Because survey responses are characterized by seasonal patterns, new seasonal factors are calculated annually based on the addition of a complete year of data.
While this year’s revisions altered levels of the indexes for certain months, the general pattern of month-to-month change in most series was similar. The largest one-month revision for the current activity index was for February — the index was revised upward 4.3 points from the previously reported level of -6.3 to a revised reading of -2.0.
For December 2014, the current activity index was revised downward slightly to 24.3 from the previously reported reading of 24.5. The six-month future activity index was revised downward to 50.4 from the previously reported reading of 51.9.
Revised historical data for all series can be retrieved from the historical data page.
A summary of 2014 revisions only (41 KB) is also available.
The next scheduled release for the Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey is at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 15, 2015.