Germany's factory orders fell less than forecast in February

According to the report from Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in February, the coronavirus pandemic did not yet have any notable impact on new orders in Germany. Price adjusted new orders in manufacturing fell a seasonally and calendar adjusted 1.4% in February 2020 on the previous month. Economists had expected a 2.4% decrease.

Price-adjusted new orders without major orders in manufacturing increased in February 2020 a seasonally and calendar adjusted 1.1% on the previous month. The data on new orders and turnover do not include the current results of the local units in Rheinland-Pfalz; these figures were estimated.

Domestic orders increased by 1.7% and foreign orders fell by 3.6% in February 2020 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area went down 5.0%, and new orders from other countries decreased by 2.7% compared with January 2020.

In February 2020 the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders increase by 0.9% compared with January 2020. The manufacturers of capital goods saw a decrease of 3.4% on the previous month. Regarding consumer goods, new orders rose 1.7%.

For January 2020, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in an increase of 4.8% compared with December 2019 (provisional: +5.5%)..