Economics
Trade Spats Weigh On German Manufacturers as Orders Slump
- Demand dropped 4% in June as tariff threats from U.S. loomed
- Automakers including BMW are fretting over business outlook
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German manufacturers took a hit in June as a slide in overseas demand knocked factory orders amid escalating trade tensions.
Orders fell 4 percent from the previous month -- eight times as much as forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists -- and the 0.8 percent drop from a year ago was the first annual decline since July 2016. The Economy Ministry acknowledged that “uncertainty from trade policy played a role” as demand from non-euro-zone countries led the slide.