German manufacturing sees largest decline since pandemic in Apr '23

The decline followed a 4.5 per cent increase in new orders in February 2023, and marked a sharp reversal of the positive trend. New orders in the first quarter of 2023 were just 0.2 per cent higher than in the previous quarter. Excluding large-scale orders, there was a decrease of 7.7 per cent in March 2023 compared to the previous month. The negative trend of new orders was visible in most economic sectors in manufacturing.

While new orders in the intermediate goods sector decreased by 7.5 per cent in March 2023 compared to the previous month, new orders in the consumer goods sector increased by 1.2 per cent, as per Destatis.

Foreign orders sank by 13.3 per cent, while domestic orders fell by 6.8 per cent on the previous month. New orders from the rest of the world fell by 14.8 per cent, and orders from the euro area by 10.8 per cent.

In addition, real turnover in manufacturing (seasonally and calendar adjusted) decreased by 2.9 per cent in March 2023 compared to February 2023, as per provisional figures. A revision of the provisional figures revealed an increase of 1.5 per cent in February 2023 from January 2023.

The country’s calendar adjusted turnover in March 2023 was 3.7 per cent higher than in March 2022.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)