The general Business Climate Index for the Agricultural Machinery Industry in Europe has continued to improve strongly, almost approaching the pre-COVID-19 level, which however was already negative. Now, in July 2020, the index is at -20 points (on a scale of -100 to +100).

While the improvement in the last month was mainly due to less negative future expectations, now in July the evaluation of the current business has also improved significantly. This trend is driven by significantly fewer negative evaluations from participants based in France and Italy. And except for harvesting equipment and components, for which the ratings are still well below average, the improvement took place across all segments, first and foremost for livestock equipment, followed by the arable segment.

Also with regard to the market side, the expectations of the survey participants have improved for nearly all European countries. Further positive signals are now coming from the important markets France and Italy, where meanwhile solid incoming orders and below-average dealer stocks of new machines are reported.