Brussels, 05/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission announced that the Business Climate Indicator in July, slightly improved in the Euro-zone, with an increase that reached -0.35 as opposed to -0.45, which was revised in June. "After the fall recorded in June, the BCI resumed the generally positive trend observed over the last 8 months", observed the services of Commissioner Pedro Solbes.
The economic sentiment indicator, which measures the confidence of the main economic players in the EU fell by 0.2 points throughout the EU (99.7 compared to 99.9 the month before) and the Euro-zone (99.4 compare to 99.6 in June. The indicator rose in Germany (0.2) and Italy (0.1) while it remained unchanged in Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It fell in the Netherlands (0.9), France (0.7), Sweden (0.5), Portugal, Finland (0.4), Belgium, Denmark, Austria (0.2) and Greece 0.1).