Press Release: June 2009: Business Climate Indicator improves, but orders continue to deteriorate

The Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area increased slightly in June. However, the level was still far below the previous historical lows of 1993. This suggests that year-on-year industrial production growth will still have been negative in May and will remain subdued in June.

The rise in the BCI reflected an overall easing, except for conditions related to order books. Managers' production expectations continued to improve in June, and their perception of the production trend observed in recent months increased significantly. Managers' opinion of stocks of finished goods also continued to improve. In contrast, both order books and export order books continued to worsen, reaching new record lows.