According to provisional calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, the number of orders received by industry in Germany fell once again in February as compared to January by 0.5% after adjustments for price and season. Thus, the decrease somewhat slowed down in comparison with January when there had been a drop by -0.7% on the previous month. Positive in February was the fact of several major orders.
While the producers of investment and consumer goods had to put up with less orders (-0.9% and -1.3% respectively), the demand for intermediate inputs remained virtually unchanged (+0.1%). The decrease in incoming orders is due to less demand from abroad which fell by 1.1%. The number of domestic orders remained constant.
As compared to the order volume in January and February 2007, this year’s volumes were significantly higher (by about 9.0%). Orders from abroad increased by 11.0% and domestic orders by 6.9% since January/February last year.
The number of incoming orders to industry had decreased over three months in a row. The decrease is in particular due to a weaker demand from abroad. Domestic demand is still robust and slightly above that of the fourth quarter 2007.
More details are available from a table compiled by the German ministry for economic affairs. 