New orders in Germany's manufacturing industry down 7.2 pct in 2020
Source: Xinhua | 2021-02-06
New orders in Germany's manufacturing industry last year declined 7.2 percent year-on-year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Friday.
Turnover in the manufacturing industry last year even fell by 10.1 percent year-on-year, according to Destatis.
In December, order intake decreased by 1.9 percent compared with the previous month. New orders from the euro area in the month declined by 7.5 percent compared to the previous month, while those from countries outside the euro area increased slightly.
"Although new orders in the manufacturing industry declined slightly in December due to the tighter lockdown, they exceeded the level before the outbreak of the pandemic," the Ministry for Economic Affairs (BMWi) noted in its monthly economic report published on Friday.
Germany's important car industry had been a decisive factor in the recent decline, while "notable increases were reported in a number of other sectors" such as pharmaceuticals and electrical equipment, BMWi noted.
After a 5-percent slump in 2020, the German government is expecting gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 3 percent this year.
Due to the current COVID-19 lockdown which will last until at least mid-February, pre-crisis economic output is not expected to be reached again until mid-2022, according to the government.
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