04.04.202506:19:40UTC+00German Factory Orders Unexpectedly Stall in February

In February 2025, factory orders in Germany remained unchanged from the previous month, falling short of market expectations for a 3.5% increase. This comes after a downward revision of January’s figures, which showed a 5.5% decline. While there were gains in demand for aircraft, ships, trains, and military vehicles (up 3.8%), mechanical engineering (up 3.4%), and the automotive sector (up 0.6%), these were counterbalanced by declines in metal products (down 7.4%), electrical equipment (down 5.9%), and pharmaceuticals (down 5.9%). New orders decreased for consumer goods (down 5.2%) and intermediate goods (down 1.3%), though there was an uptick for capital goods (up 1.5%). Domestic orders fell by 1.2%, contrasting with a 0.8% increase in foreign orders. Within this, demand from the euro area decreased by 3.0%, whereas orders from outside the euro area saw a 3.4% increase. Excluding large orders, there was a slight decrease of 0.2% in incoming orders from January. Over a three-month period, from November 2024 to January 2025, new orders were 1.6% lower compared to the preceding three months.