Germany’s manufacturing sector experienced a decline in new orders during April 2023, with a 0.4% decrease compared to the previous month, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The provisional data, adjusted for seasonal and calendar factors, revealed that new orders had previously fallen by 10.9% in March 2023. However, a closer look at the less volatile three-month average showed that new orders were 2.3% lower in the recent three-month period compared to the preceding three months. Excluding large-scale orders, there was a notable increase of 1.4% in new orders for April 2023 compared to the previous month.
Among the various sectors within manufacturing, machinery and equipment manufacturing suffered a significant decline of 6.2% in new orders when compared to March 2023, while miscellaneous vehicle construction experienced a substantial downturn of 34.0%. On the other hand, the sectors of electrical equipment manufacturing and motor vehicle manufacturing demonstrated positive growth, with increases of 12.0% and 2.4%, respectively.
In terms of goods categories, new orders for consumer goods decreased by 2.5% in April 2023 compared to the previous month, while capital goods orders saw a decline of 1.7%. However, intermediate goods orders bucked the trend and increased by 2.3%.
The analysis of orders based on their origin revealed that domestic orders experienced a rise of 1.6%, while foreign orders declined by 1.8% compared to the previous month. Notably, new orders from the rest of the world fell by 1.1%, and orders from the euro area decreased by 2.7%.
In addition to new orders, the turnover index in manufacturing also witnessed a decline, with real turnover dropping by 1.2% in April 2023 compared to March 2023. The revised figures for March 2023 showed a decrease of 2.2% from February 2023. However, the calendar-adjusted turnover for April 2023 was 2.9% higher than the corresponding month in 2022.
It is important to consider that short-term economic comparisons may be influenced by the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine. The data presented reflects the performance of selected branches of manufacturing according to the Classification of Economic Activities, 2008 edition (WZ 2008). The indices are based on price-adjusted data, with the average figure for 2015 set as the base (100 index points). The X13 JDemetra+ method is used for calendar and seasonal adjustment of the data.