Despite the challenging headwinds currently faced by the agricultural sector, the general business climate index for the European agricultural machinery industry now shows a slight pick up following a challenging start to the year.

Each month, CEMA, the European agricultural machinery association, carries out a survey with 140 senior managers from machinery companies in the industry, across nine countries. The survey covers all major sectors to form an understanding of the current and future business situation. Within each report, the association publishes a general business climate index for the agricultural machinery industry in Europe (on a scale of -100 to 100).

The August report outlines that although the industry has improved, it still remains in negative territory. This follows the sharp declines recorded in recent months, which had pushed the sector back into a state of contraction after just over a year. The index rose from -19 to -14 points on a -100 to 100 scale. The recent downturn was driven by a marked deterioration in both the assessment of current business and turnover expectations.

Irish market confident

With view to the European market, the report outlines that Ireland, the UK and Scandinavia, lead the confidence ranking, whereas negative expectations for major markets such as Poland and France have been confirmed once again.