XE.com - INSTANT VIEW 2-Belgium's leading indicator dips again in ...

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) - Belgian business sentiment, a bellwether for the euro zone, declined for a second consecutive month in April, defying expectations for a rise, as business chiefs in manufacturing became more pessimistic.

NOTE - The index, often referred to as the leading indicator, was below the average expectation in a Reuters poll of 13 economists for an improvement to -9.0.

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ECONOMISTS' COMMENTS

STEVEN VANNESTE, BNP PARIBAS FORTIS:

'The decline of Belgian business confidence is in line with our expectations.

'The truth is we are again going through a difficult phase, so what we see is that manufacturing is going down, but the situation is still better than it was at the end of last year.

'The confidence in the manufacturing sector is still above the level it was at the end of 2011. So it's declining, but it's not too dramatic.

'What we see is that the more domestic-orientated sectors - like construction and trade - here we see confidence improving, and this is in line with what we saw in the previous month, namely the rise in consumer confidence, where the uncertainty about fiscal consolidation measures has disappeared.'

MARKET REACTION

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KEY POINTS FROM THE STATEMENT

'As was the case last month, business confidence weakened in the manufacturing industry. After a rebound in March, the economic climate in business-related services has also deteriorated. However, after having declined for two and three months respectively, the building industry and, more explicitly, trade have recovered in April.

'After having stabilised in January, the capacity utilisation rate in the manufacturing industry has again weakened slightly in April. Seasonally adjusted, this capacity utilisation rate stood at 78.1 % in April, down from 78.4 % in January.

'Despite the second consecutive weakening of the gross synthetic curve, the smoothed synthetic curve, which reflects the underlying trend, is still pointing slightly upwards, owing to favourable developments in the previous months.'

IFO

Germany's influential Ifo business climate index unexpectedly rose for the sixth consecutive month in a sign that Europe's largest economy continues to outpace peers. .

DETAILS

For more information, go to the National Bank of Belgium's Web site in English, German, French and Dutch at http://www.nbb.be

BACKGROUND

The business confidence index is based on central bank surveys of manufacturing, construction and retailing and calculated on the basis of the difference between positive and negative answers to questions. It is slightly positive at the top of an economic cycle and strongly negative at the depth of a recession.

Keywords: BELGIUM ECONOMY/LEADING

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