Press Release: May 2010: Business Climate Indicator improves slightly

In May 2010, 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.