German Factory Orders Unexpectedly Fall on Exports Slowdown
- Orders fall 1.2% on month vs. estimate of 0.3% increase
- February decline led by sluggish growth in global trade
Protective covers sit on the landing gear of an Airbus A320 aircraft on the final assembly line inside the Airbus Group SE factory in Hamburg, Germany, on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the sole airline so far to take delivery of the new A320neo model, will limit the plane to domestic German routes until glitches with the engine cooling system are resolved in coming weeks.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergGerman factory orders unexpectedly fell in February in a sign that a global trade slowdown is weighing on Europe’s largest economy.
Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, dropped 1.2 percent from the prior month, when they rose a revised 0.5 percent, data from the Economy Ministry in Berlin showed on Tuesday. The reading, which is typically volatile, compares with a median estimate for an increase of 0.3 percent in a Bloomberg survey. Orders climbed 0.5 percent from a year earlier.