German Factory Orders Fall In May

(RTTNews) - Germany's factory orders decreased for the first time in three months in May reflecting the weakness in domestic market.

Factory orders fell 0.2 percent month-on-month in May, in contrast to a 2.2 percent increase in April, which was revised up from a 1.4 percent growth, Destatis reported Monday.

This was the first decline in three months. But it was slower than the expected decrease of 0.4 percent.

Domestic orders declined 0.6 percent in May from the prior month, while foreign orders rose 0.2 percent.

The May result was dampened by a marked decline of the always very volatile orders in the "other vehicles" sector, Ralph Solveen at Commerzbank, noted. Without this sector, orders in April and May rose by almost 3 percent on the average for the first quarter.

This suggests slightly stronger economic growth again in the summer half year, Solveen added.

Among sectors, orders received in the capital goods sector dropped 0.8 percent in May and that for consumer goods sector went down by 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, intermediate goods sector registered an increase of 1.3 percent.

As regards the direction of trade in foreign transactions, new orders from the euro area declined 1.5 percent, while new orders from other countries ascended 1.2 percent.

On a yearly basis, growth in factory orders accelerated to 4.7 percent in May from 1.3 percent in April.

The statistical office is set to publish industrial production data on Tuesday. Production is expected to grow 0.1 percent month-on-month in May.