31/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone is expected to be 1.6% in May 2010, after having reached 1.5% the previous month, indicated Eurostat on Monday 31 May. In May, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area improved marginally, suggesting that economic activity would pick up and intensify, indicated a Commission press release. For the same period, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) declined, moving back to 100.0 (-1.9 points) in the EU and to 98.4 (-2.2 points) in the euro area. While industry sentiment continued to improve, all other sectoral sentiment indicators dropped (services, consumers, wholesale, construction and financial services), noted the Commission. These results should, nonetheless, be taken with a pinch of salt, following the changes to the methodology for calculating these indicators. (A.B./transl.fl)