German economy shows glimmer of hope as factory orders jump

Non-Eurozone demand drives June’s increase, which came after stream of poor data

Goods wagons, operated by DB Cargo AG, stand in a rail yard near Ludwigsfelder Strasse in Munich, Germany on August 4th. Photograph: Matthias Doering/Bloomberg via Getty

Industrial orders rose more than expected in Germany in June, driven by an increase in demand from beyond the Eurozone, offering some rare relief for the bloc's largest economy after a recent stream of poor data.

Provisional figures showed that new manufacturing orders increased by 2.5 per cent month on month in June. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.5 per cent rise in June.

While domestic orders fell by 1 per cent, foreign orders rose 5 per cent. New orders from countries other than those in the Eurozone climbed 8.6 per cent compared with May. Orders from the Eurozone declined 0.6 per cent.

Tuesday’s figures were a sharp improvement from the previous month, when order volumes contracted by 2 per cent, although this figure was revised upwards from provisional data that had calculated a 2.2 per cent decline compared with April.

READ MORE

However the lingering impact of the past year’s economic slowdown means that orders in June were still 3.6 per cent lower compared with June 2018, the national statistics office Destatis said on Tuesday. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019