Germany Factory Orders Recover In November

Germany's factory orders rebounded at a faster-than-expected pace in November underpinned by robust foreign demand, data from Destatis showed on Thursday.

New orders grew 3.7 percent month-on-month in November, reversing a strong decline of 5.8 percent in October. The pace of growth also exceeded the economists' forecast of 2.1 percent.

Excluding major orders, new orders advanced 3.8 percent from the previous month.

Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic in Germany, new orders were 6.6 percent higher in November.

The strong growth in new orders was attributable to foreign orders which grew 8.0 percent. At the same time, domestic orders went down 2.5 percent.

The largest increase in new orders of 32.0 percent was recorded in the manufacture of other transport equipment for which extensive major orders were reported.

Producers of intermediate goods saw new orders in November rose 1.2 percent on the month before. At the same time, manufacturers of capital goods recorded an increase of 5.3 percent. Regarding consumer goods, orders went up 3.8 percent.

On a yearly basis, factory orders gained 1.3 percent, faster than the 0.1 percent increase seen in October.

Further, data showed that manufacturing turnover gained 4.1 percent on month, following a 3.4 percent rise in October. Compared with November 2020, turnover was by 0.3 percent higher.

Although demand for industrial products is weakening, there is still significant upside potential for production, Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank, said. This is because companies are still sitting on a huge pile of orders.