Order books for the next six months of Germany's manufacturing industry in April decreased by 1.1 percent compared with the previous month, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Wednesday.
German domestic orders not yet completed fell 1.2 percent while the stock of international orders in April only declined by 1.0 percent compared to March, according to the provisional data by Destatis.
However, Destatis noted that recent decline in new orders only had a "moderate impact" on the stock of orders of German manufacturers. The data showed, in particular, that the industry generally did not record extensive cancellations of orders in April.
Destatis announced two weeks ago that new orders of Germany's manufacturing industry in April plummeted by 25.8 percent month-on-month.
The coronavirus pandemic had caused "the largest decline since the beginning of the time series in January 1991," Destatis noted. In March, new manufacturing orders had already fallen by 15 percent.
At the same time, the ifo Institute warned that Germany's manufacturing industry was "massively cutting back on investments," with 64 percent of manufacturing companies postponing projects.
Although most of Germany's major sales markets had been affected by COVID-19 restrictions, the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) expects that "the low point of the industrial recession should now be passed."
褰檽锟斤拷?