IP/10/637
Brussels, 31 May 2010
May 2010: Business Climate Indicator improves slightly
In May, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area improved marginally. The current level of the indicator suggests that economic activity in industry will continue to recover in the coming months, although it has still some way to go to reach its pre-crisis height. Please note that the results are influenced by the change of classification of economic activities (NACE Rev.2) that has been implemented for the business surveys in May. The results for this month are based on NACE Rev.2 classification, while data up to April 2010 are based on NACE Rev.1. Internal checks indicate that the changeover has affected the level, making interpretation more difficult. This level shift did not, on the whole, affect the direction of the change, but its magnitude.
The BCI is based on a factor analysis of the euro area aggregate balances (seasonally adjusted) of five of the monthly questions in the industry survey (only employment and selling-price expectations are excluded).
Full details of the Business Climate Indicator are available on the Europa website:
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/db_indicators/surveys/index_en.htm
The next BCI Results are due to be published on 29 June 2010.
