Press Release: September 2006: Business Climate Indicator for the euro area rebounds in September

After two consecutive months of decline, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area increased in September 2006. The sustained high level of the BCI suggests that industrial production growth has picked up during the third quarter of 2006, despite an initial decline in July. The pickup in the BCI is due to marked increases in industry managers' production expectations for the months ahead and in their assessment of the production trend observed in recent months. Improvements in the other three components of the BCI, namely total order books, export order books and stocks of finished products, also contributed to the increase in the BCI.