© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Employees wear protective masks at the Volkswagen assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany, April 27, 2020. Swen Pfoertner/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) – German industrial orders rose in December, beating forecasts and posting their biggest gain in more than a year on strong eurozone and domestic demand.
New orders rose 3.2% for the month on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said Monday.
A Reuters poll of analysts pointed to a 2.0% gain for the month, after an upward revision of a 4.4% decline in November.
“Demand in the manufacturing sector stabilized at the end of 2022,” the economy ministry said.
The ministry added that the latest orders data, as well as the improvement in the business environment in recent months, suggest that the recession is likely to be milder in winter than previously expected. This.
German manufacturers started 2023 with a slightly brighter outlook for next year, as the final S&P Global (NYSE:NYSE) Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector rose to 47.3. in January from 47.1 of the previous month. However, the main drag on the headline index remains new orders.
The statistics office said the increase in December was mainly due to large-scale orders. Excluding large orders, there was a decrease of 0.6% for the month.
“Although December’s gain partially offset the previous month’s decline, the trend in orders continues to decline markedly, particularly as the increase in December alone was attributed to the number of orders. unusually large scale,” said deputy director Ralph Solveen. chief economist at Commerzbank (ETR:).
As the backlog of orders appears to be dwindling, the industry is more likely to slow down the German economy this year, Solveen said.
A separate survey by the Ifo Institute on Monday showed sentiment in Germany’s chemical industry deteriorated in January.
With few exceptions, new orders continued to decline throughout 2022 and were 10.1% lower in December compared to the same period in 2021 in calendar-adjusted terms.
New orders in December were slightly above pre-pandemic levels, up 1.2% from December 2019.
The Statistical Office released a statement with more economic data.
