Orders placed with companies in the German manufacturing sector were down in September, after rising sharply the previous month. The Economy Ministry calculated that German manufacturing orders declined by 2.5% in September from the figure for August. The ministry attributed the drop to fluctuations in foreign orders for capital goods.
Overall, export orders slid by 6.2% in September from August, while domestic orders edged up by 1.5% month-on-month.
A sector breakdown showed that orders placed with manufacturers of capital goods fell by 5% on a monthly basis in September and orders for consumer goods slipped by 0.5%. By contrast, orders for semi-finished goods were up by 0.4%.
Using a two-month comparison to iron out seasonal fluctuations, German manufacturing orders increased by 3.4% in August and September combined from the figure for June and July, the ministry said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
