German Manufacturing Orders Log Surprise Fall

(RTTNews) - Germany's factory orders posted an unexpected decline in April on sharp reduction in large-scale orders, data from Destatis showed on Thursday.

Factory orders dropped 0.2 percent month-on-month in April, confounding expectations for an increase of 0.3 percent. Orders had declined over the last four months.

Nonetheless, the latest pace of decline was slower than the revised 0.8 percent fall posted in March.

Moreover, when large-scale orders were excluded, new orders advanced 2.9 percent from the previous month.

"Together with the more positive sentiment indicators, this gives hope that the downward trend that has persisted for more than two years is coming to an end," Commerzbank economist Ralph Solveen said.

There was a sharp 15.4 percent decrease in orders for other transport equipment. The manufacture of computer, electronics and optical products reported a 5.1 percent fall and that of electrical equipment eased 4.1 percent.

On the other hand, orders in the automotive industry gained 4.1 percent.

New orders in the capital goods sector and the consumer goods sector moved up 0.5 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, there was a drop of 1.7 percent in the intermediate goods sector.

Foreign orders slid 0.1 percent as orders from the euro area declined 1.4 percent. By contrast, orders from the non-euro area grew 0.6 percent. Further, domestic orders registered a 0.3 percent drop.

On a yearly basis, the decline in new orders softened to 1.6 percent from 2.4 percent in March.

Data showed that real turnover in manufacturing decreased 0.9 percent on a monthly basis after a revised 0.4 percent drop in the prior month. Compared to last year, turnover was down 3.2 percent.

Destatis is slated to release industrial production data on June 7. Production is expected to grow only 0.1 percent after a 0.4 percent drop in March.