Germany's factory orders fell sharply in March

According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of new orders in manufacturing in Germany decreased significantly in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Real (price adjusted) new orders decreased by a seasonally and calendar adjusted 15.6% in March 2020 compared with February 2020. This is the largest decline since the beginning of the time series in January 1991. Economists had expected a 10% decrease.

Compared with March 2019, the decrease in calendar adjusted new orders amounted to 16.0%. Excluding major orders, real new orders in manufacturing (seasonally and calendar adjusted) were 15.5% lower than in the previous month.

Domestic orders decreased by 14.8% and foreign orders fell by 16.1% in March 2020 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area went down 17.9%, and new orders from other countries decreased by 15.0% compared with February 2020.

In March 2020 the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders decrease by 7.5% compared with February 2020. The manufacturers of capital goods saw a decrease of 22.6% on the previous month. Regarding consumer goods, new orders fell 1.3%.

For February 2020, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in a decrease of 1.2% compared with January 2020 (provisional: -1.4%).