Tuesday July 7, 12:24 PM
German industrial orders 'gain 4.4% in May'
BERLIN (AFP) - German industrial orders climbed by 4.4 percent in May from the previous month, official data showed Tuesday, pursuing a rise begun in March as the economy ministry saw prospects for stabilised output.
On a yearly basis however, orders for industrial goods in the biggest European economy fell by 29.4 percent, the ministry figures showed.
Both numbers were nonetheless better than analyst forecasts that had expected a monthly rise of 0.5 percent and an annual fall of 31.5 percent.
The ministry revised the monthly figure for April to a slight rise of 0.1 percent from a previous estimate of no change, meaning that industrial orders, a key indicator of future output, have now risen for three months running.
"Is this the turn for the better?" ING senioor economist Carsten Brzeski asked. "After the dramatic declines since end-2007, new orders have started a fragile recovery."
Strong contributions were turned in by the auto construction and auto parts sector, the ministry statement said, while orders from outside the 16-nation eurozone jumped by 8.2 percent on the month.
That was good news for Germany's export-oriented economy, which is suffering its worst recession since World War II.
"The perspective of a broad stabilisation in industrial production has been reinforced" by the latest data, the ministry said.
When calculated on a two-month basis to smooth out discrepencies, the data showed orders in April and May were 33.5 percent lower than in the same period a year earlier, a sign of how deep the German recession has been.
The government expects the economy to contract by 6.0 percent this year.
But key leading indicators suggest the steepest part the decline has passed, even though activity is likely to remain sluggish until 2010 at least.
Brzeski called the three-month rise in orders good news for Germany's precarious jobs market as well.
"The safety net of short-term labour will only hold if order books start to fill up again," he noted.
"A single new-order number is no reason to get overly excited but the underlying trend of the last three months is promising."
|
|
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
