Econintersect: German factory orders declined for the first time in three months in November 2014, The drop of 2.4% was much larger than had been expected (–0.8%, according to Bloomberg). November reversed most of the 2.9% gain in October. Orders for November 2014 were 0.4% less than the same month a year ago. Domestic factory orders declined much more (–4.7%) than for export (–0.7%).
Click for larger picture with wider view of German toy factory at BBC News.
Econintersect cautions reading much significance into a single monthly reading. Factory orders are extremely noisy and continually oscillate between growth and contraction. The nature of the data is evident in the 1-year and 4-year graphs of factory orders from Trading Economics.
Sources:
- German Factory Orders Fell in November Amid Uncertain Outlook ( Alessandro Speciale, Bloomberg, 08 January 2015)
- Germany Factory Orders (Trading Economics, 08 January 2015))