German recession fears rise as factory orders plummet
Timilehin Adejumobi
1 min read
Industrial orders at German factories saw their biggest fall in March since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020, data showed Friday, the latest sign that Europe’s biggest economy is facing a steep downturn.
New orders, which give a foretaste of industrial output, dropped a surprise 10.7 percent from the previous month, according to provisional figures from federal statistics authority Destatis.
It was the biggest decline since April 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic snarled the global economy amid lockdowns and border closures.
The fall was far steeper than the 2.8 percent decline forecast by analysts surveyed by the financial data firm FactSet.
Orders had been rising in recent months, bolstering hopes that Germany was weathering the fallout from the Ukraine war and resulting energy crisis better than feared.
But the latest data rang alarm bells anew about the state of the economy, with LBBW bank economist Jens-Oliver Niklasch calling the plunge a warning for investors.
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