BERLIN -- German industrial orders, a key measure of demand for its goods, fell slightly in August, seasonally adjusted data from the economy ministry showed Tuesday.
The 0.3% month-on-month drop followed a sharper fall of a revised 1.9% in July, which was however blamed on an unusually strong June rise boosted by big-ticket orders.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted a 1.1% increase for August.
The ministry said that, despite the monthly drops, "the order volume remained above the average level of the second quarter" and pointed to signs of growing domestic demand.
Overall, orders for German investment goods fell 0.7% while consumer goods orders dropped 0.4%.
The ministry said that domestic orders rose 2.2% -- led by investment goods orders within Germany which were up 4.7%.
But this was outweighed by a drop in industrial orders from abroad, which were down 2.1%.
The data looked better than one year ago. Combined industrial orders for July and August were up 2.6 percent compared to the same period in 2012.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
