German factory orders rose less than expected in September

According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), real (price adjusted) new orders increased by a seasonally and calendar adjusted 0.5% in September 2020 compared with August 2020. Economists had expected a 2.0% increase.

Compared with September 2019, the decrease in calendar adjusted new orders amounted to -1.9%. Excluding major orders, real new orders in manufacturing (seasonally and calendar adjusted) were also 4.5% higher than in the previous month.

The corona crisis has affected the development in manufacturing for several months now. Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the corona pandemic in Germany, new orders in September 2020 were 2.6% lower in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms.

Domestic orders increased by 2.3% and foreign orders decreased by 0.8% in September 2020 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area went down 6.0%, and new orders from other countries increased by 2.7% compared with August 2020.

In September 2020, the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders increase by 4.0% compared with August 2020. The manufacturers of capital goods saw a decrease of 2.0% on the previous month. Regarding consumer goods, new orders rose 2.6%.