Press Release: April 2005: Business Climate Indicator in the euro area continues to worsen.

The Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area fell in April 2005 by 0.19 points to a level of -0.28, following the declines in previous months. While the slide of the indicator had already started in summer 2004, it became more pronounced since the start of 2005. The April decline of the BCI was reflected in all underlying components. However, the deterioration in industry managers' opinions was particularly marked for export order books and total order books while the production trend observed in the recent past, the stocks of finished products and the production expectations decreased more moderately.