German industrial orders slip in December
Industrial orders in Germany fell back in December, official data showed Wednesday, in the latest sign of slowdown in Europe's largest economy.
Orders were down 1.6 percent month-on-month, federal statistics authority Destatis said in seasonally- and calendar-adjusted figures.
But there was some brighter news in the data as well. Excluding volatile large orders for items like aircraft there was a 3.5 percent increase in new business.
Looking to different industrial sectors, both producer goods and capital goods makers reported falling contracts, dropping by 1.2 and 2.5 percent respectively.
But consumer goods firms booked a rebound after two successive monthly falls, gaining 4.2 percent.
Demand from abroad fell 2.3 percent, although eurozone orders partially rebounded from a sharp fall in November while new contracts from the rest of the world shrank.
And domestic orders fell back only slightly, by 0.6 percent.
In a statement, the economy ministry in Berlin noted that orders increased 0.3 percent over the whole final quarter of 2018.
All the growth came from capital goods makers as the car industry overcame bottlenecks in the EU-wide WLTP emissions testing cycle, which came into force in September.
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