German Factory Orders Fall as Export Slowdown Cools Confidence
- Orders drop 0.7% on month vs. estimate for 0.5 % decrease
- December loss driven by decline in big-ticket orders
An employee works at a gas turbine factory in Berlin. factory orders fell more than anticipated in December.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
German factory orders fell more than anticipated in December, in a sign that a global trade slowdown may be restraining parts of Europe’s largest economy even as domestic consumption proves robust.
Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, dropped 0.7 percent from the prior month, when they rose 1.5 percent, data from the Economy Ministry in Berlin showed on Friday. The December reading for the highly volatile series compares with a median estimate for a decrease of 0.5 percent in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Orders dropped 2.7 percent from a year earlier.