German Factory Orders Recover In February

Germany’s factory orders expanded in February after declining sharply at the start of the year, signalling that the recession is likely to be relatively mild.

Factory orders posted a monthly growth of 0.2 percent in February, in contrast to the revised 11.4 percent decline in January, data from Destatis showed on Friday. However, the rebound was weaker than economists’ forecast of 0.8 percent growth.

In three months to February, new orders advanced 2.8 percent from the previous three months. The increase was mainly due to large orders in December.

Excluding major orders, incoming orders dropped 2.0 percent from the previous three months.

In February, foreign orders decreased 0.7 percent. By contrast, domestic orders advanced 1.5 percent.

Within foreign orders, orders from the euro area slid 13.1 percent, while that from outside euro area climbed 7.8 percent.

Data showed that orders for intermediate goods and consumer goods grew 1.0 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. Partially offsetting these gains, new orders for capital goods dropped 0.6 percent.

Year-on-year, industrial orders plunged 10.6 percent after falling 6.2 percent in January.

Turnover in the manufacturing sector grew 2.2 percent on month in February, after easing 5.2 percent a month ago.

Last week, leading five economic think tanks significantly lowered the biggest euro area economy’s growth forecast for this year to 0.1 percent, citing cyclical and structural weakness amid sluggish economic activity.