German factory orders rose more than expected in January

According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), real (price adjusted) new orders increased by a seasonally and calendar adjusted 1.4% in January 2021 compared with December 2020. Economists had expected a 0.7% increase. Compared with January 2020, the increase in calendar adjusted new orders amounted to +2.5%. Excluding major orders, real new orders in manufacturing (seasonally and calendar adjusted) were 2.8% higher 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 January 2021 were 3.7% higher in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms.

Domestic orders decreased by 2.6% and foreign orders increased by 4.2% in January 2021 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area went up 3.9%, and new orders from other countries increased by 4.4% compared with December 2020.

In January 2021, the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders increase by 0.2% compared with December 2020. The manufacturers of capital goods saw an increase of 3.3% on the previous month. Regarding consumer goods, new orders fell by 5.8%.

For December 2020, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in a decrease of 2.2% compared with November 2020 (provisional: -1.9).