German factory orders fell sharply in December

According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), real (price adjusted) new orders decreased by a seasonally and calendar adjusted 1.9% in December 2020 compared with November 2020. Economists had expected a 1.0% decrease.

Compared with December 2019, the increase in calendar adjusted new orders amounted to +6.4%. Excluding major orders, real new orders in manufacturing (seasonally and calendar adjusted) were 2.0% lower than in the previous month.

Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the corona pandemic in Germany, new orders in December 2020 were 2.6% higher in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms.

Domestic orders decreased by 0.9% and foreign orders decreased by 2.6% in December 2020 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area went down 7.5%, and new orders from other countries increased by 0.5% compared with November 2020.

In December 2020, the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders increase by 0.8% compared with November 2020. The manufacturers of capital goods saw a decrease of 4.6% on the previous month. Regarding consumer goods, new orders rose by 6.4%.

In 2020, new orders in the manufacturing sector were 7.2% lower in calendar-adjusted terms than in the previous year.

For November 2020, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in an increase of 2.7% compared with October 2020 (provisional: +2.3%)