The German industrial sector released positive data on Friday, providing a timely boost to a country currently extending its lockdown.
German industrial orders increased more than expected in October, whilst rising for a sixth successive month. October’s factory orders are now at pre-pandemic levels.
The Federal Statistics Offices reported on Friday that orders for industrial goods increased by 2.9% in seasonally adjusted terms. The figures easily surpassed market expectations for an increase of 1.5%.
Meanwhile, September’s figure was upwardly revised to an increase of 1.1%.
The Economy Ministry reported that domestic orders increased 2.4% in October, while orders from outside Germany rose 3.2%. Contracts from the within a euro zone, suffering from new COVID lockdowns, showed a modest increase of just 0.5%.
Jens-Oliver Niklasch, senior economist at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg said:
“Industry is doing well again,”
“The economic weakness resulting from the pandemic is more or less the result of the services sector. And this will not change soon.”
The data release on Friday also showed that demand for both capital and intermediate goods had risen whilst demand for consumer goods had contracted.
Germany is one of the Western countries that has managed to adapt to the CIVID-19 crisis and keep its manufacturing open. Whilst other nations in the euro zone that are more reliant on tourism, Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has showed economic resilience during the pandemic.
However, Germany has extended its own pandemic restrictions into 2021 and the the Bundesbank, the Central Bank of Germany has warned the world’s 4th largest economy could stagnate or even contract in the final three months of what has been a challenging year.
