Jul 06, 2022 03:02AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
New orders in German industry rose slightly in May. This exceeded expectations and reversed the trend after three consecutive months of declining figures due to the war in Ukraine, data showed on Wednesday.
Orders for manufactured goods rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent from the previous month, following an upwardly revised 1.8 percent drop in April, figures from the Federal Statistics Office showed.
A Reuters poll of analysts had predicted a 0.6% month-on-month decline in May.
Despite the stabilisation, the Economics Ministry saw no reason for optimism, pointing to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the Ukraine war and the threat of a halt to Russian gas supplies.
New manufacturing orders from abroad rose by 1.3 % in May compared to the previous month, with orders from the non-euro area increasing by 3.7 %. This contrasted with a 1.5% decline in domestic orders and a 2.4% drop in new orders from the euro area.
Industry is not lacking in orders, but in preliminary products such as computer chips, said Alexander Krüger, chief economist at the private bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe.
Only when the gas supply is secured and the supply bottlenecks ease, the situation should improve.
According to the ifo Institute, 75.7% of retailers said they had not received all the goods they had ordered in June, and many expect the supply problems to continue until mid-2023.
Delivery problems have become a chronic problem for retailers