German factory orders logged an unexpected decline in May due to the decrease in foreign demand, official data showed on Thursday.

Factory orders declined 1.6 percent month-on-month in May, sharper than the revised 0.6 percent decrease in April, Destatis reported. This was the fifth consecutive decline and also came in contrast to economists’ forecast of 0.5 percent growth.

Excluding large orders, incoming orders were 2.2 percent lower than in April.

New orders in the “manufacture of other transport equipment” logged a sharp decrease of 19.2 percent. Moreover, there was a 2.9 percent drop in orders in the automotive industry.

By contrast, the “manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products” surged 11.2 percent from the previous month.

Further, data showed that new orders for capital goods slid 4.3 percent. Partially offsetting this fall, orders were up in both the intermediate goods sector and the consumer goods sector by 1.4 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

Foreign orders decreased 2.8 percent with orders from the non-euro area falling by 4.6 percent and orders from the euro area decreasing 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, domestic orders went up 0.5 percent.

Year-on-year, new orders registered a sharp 8.6 percent decline in May compared to a moderate 1.8 percent drop in April.

Real turnover in manufacturing was down 0.7 percent after a revised 1.0 percent drop in April. On a yearly basis, turnover declined 6.0 percent.

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