May 05, 2023 (MLN): Industrial orders in Germany fell by 10.7% MoM from the previous month, fastest pace since the Covid-19 pandemic, data showed on Friday, signaling that Europe's biggest economy is facing a steep downturn.
New orders, which give a foretaste of industrial output, dropped by this surprise 10.7% from the previous month, according to provisional figures from federal statistics authority Destatis, as reported by APP.
It was the biggest MoM decline since April 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic snarled the global economy amid lockdowns and border closures.
A Financial data firm, FactSet, forecasted a 2.8% decline whereas the actual decline came in far steeper.
This latest data rang alarm bells anew about the state of the economy, as LBBW bank economist Jens-Oliver Niklasch warned investors of the sharp drop.
He said in a research note that the figure destroyed the hopes of a good start to the year for German industry, and is a real recession signal.
The decline was reported across most areas of the manufacturing sector, Destatis said, with foreign orders dropping by 13.3% and domestic orders by 6.8%.
