factory activity in the us central atlantic region grew marginally in december closing a year in which the regions manufacturing sector struggled as high inflation and rapidly rising interest rates weighed on demand the federal reserve bank of richmond said wednesday that the fifth district survey of manufacturing activitys index rose to 1 in december from minus 9 in november in a sign that factory activity eked out a small gain at yearend after stalling or declining for the past seven months economists polled by the wall street journal expected the index to come in at minus 10 the indicator is compiled by surveying manufacturing firms across the fifth federal reserve district which includes the district of columbia maryland north carolina south carolina virginia and most of west virginia all three component indexes which form the composite indexnew orders shipments and employmentimproved in december the volume of new orders index rose to minus 4 from minus 14 suggesting that orders declined but at a lesser pace than the previous month the shipments index rose to 5 from minus 8 pointing to a rebound in shipments while the employment index increased to 3 from minus 1 suggesting firms in the area added jobs the indexes for order backlogs and vendor lead time remained in negative territory indicating businesses continued to see shrinking backlogs and lead times as supplychain bottlenecks ease the richmond fed said inflation pressures abated with growth rates of both prices paid and prices received decreasing in december according to the survey despite more upbeat assessment of activity in december a larger portion of firms are pessimistic about local business conditions over the next six months the richmond fed said