German industrial orders fall unexpectedly in April

(Reuters) -German industrial orders fell unexpectedly in April, dragged down by large-scale orders, data from the federal statistics office showed on Tuesday.

Industrial orders fell by 0.4% on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a 3.0% increase.

Excluding large-scale orders, there was an increase of 1.4% in April compared to the previous month.

The statistics office revised the figure for March to a 10.9% decline on the month, from a 10.7% drop previously.

New orders are very weak while the backlog of orders remains high, Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, told Reuters.

Year-on-year, industrial orders were down 9.9% in April.

“Companies will continue to produce, but new orders are not coming in as much as usual, so there is no reason to ramp up production,” Schmieding said.

“Production has no scope to rebound further,” said Franzisca Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics. “New demand is very niche.”

Domestic orders rose by 1.6%, while foreign orders sank by 1.8% on the previous month, the statistics office data showed.

Across sectors, there were big differences. While manufacturing in machinery and equipment and miscellaneous vehicle construction -ships, trains, aircrafts- posted declines in orders, the sector of electrical equipment and manufacturing of motor vehicles saw gains.

The statistics office publishes more economic data on its website.

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