German factory orders fall in November
Xinhua, January 8, 2015 Adjust font size:
New orders in German manufacturing declined unexpectedly sharply in November 2014, official data showed on Thursday, but overall trend was seen as positive due to recent optimistic sentiments.
Adjusted for price, seasonal and calendar swings, new orders in manufacturing decreased by 2.4 percent in November on October 2014 when the orders increased by 2.9 percent month on month, said German statistical office Destatis. Economists had expected a fall of 0.8 percent.
Domestic orders dropped by 4.7 percent in November and foreign orders decreased by 0.7 percent, Destatis said.
"The proportion of large orders was noticeably below average," said German Federal Economy Ministry in a statement, adding that the trend of new orders remained upward despite the weak November figure.
On average, orders during the September-November period was 0.9 percent higher than the previous three months. Orders from the euro zone grew particularly strongly by 3.0 percent on the three-month comparison.
"The prospects for a rise in new orders in the last quarter are good overall," the ministry said, citing improvements in recent sentiment indicators. Endit