Factory orders in Germany rose 1 percent in January

The German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has announced provisional data on factory orders for January.

Thus, orders for products manufactured in the country increased 1 percent in January compared to the previous month, and decreased 10.9 percent compared to January 2022.

The market expectation for factory orders was 1 percent per month. There was a 3.4 percent increase in such orders in December 2022.

In Germany, domestic orders fell 5.3 percent on a month in January, while orders from abroad rose 5.5 percent.

NEW ORDERS DECREASED BY 2.9 PERCENT IN THE EURO REGION

In the said period, new orders from the Euro Zone decreased by 2.9 percent compared to December, while orders from other countries to Germany increased by 11.2 percent.

In January, orders for manufacturers of intermediate goods fell 8.9 percent on a month, while orders for capital goods rose 8.9 percent. Orders for manufacturers of consumer goods fell 5.5 percent.

EFFECT OF THE ENERGY CRISIS AND RECORD INFLATION

Meanwhile, the German economy contracted 0.2 percent in the last quarter of 2022, compared to the previous quarter, due to the energy crisis and record inflation.

Economists expect GDP to fall further in the first quarter of this year as Europe’s largest economy is in recession.

The technical recession is expressed as “two quarters of a GDP contraction”.

Germany experienced its first recession since 2009 in 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 outbreak after 10 years of good economic growth.

The German government expects 0.2 percent growth in the economy this year. (AA)