2020.08.0612:06:00UTC+00Germany's Factory Orders Growth Exceeds Expectations

Germany's factory orders grew more than expected in June on strong domestic demand as consumption benefited from the easing of lockdown measures, data from Destatis showed Thursday.

Orders advanced 27.9 percent on a monthly basis in June, faster than the 10.4 percent increase seen in May and much bigger than economists' forecast of 10.1 percent rise. New orders expanded for the second straight month in June after three months of declines due to the coronavirus related lockdown.

Domestic orders advanced 35.3 percent and foreign orders climbed 22 percent in June from the previous month. Demand from the euro area was up 22.3 percent and that from other countries gained 21.7 percent.

After the first upturn in May, the recovery in new orders in manufacturing took a big step forward in June, the economy ministry said.

Orders from abroad are lagging behind the development in Germany. This shows why the further recovery process will proceed more slowly, the ministry added.

The only limiting factor is that order books had already been in a long shrinking process for two years prior to the crisis, Carsten Brzeski, an ING economist said. These structural issues will not disappear overnight, but today's numbers suggest that the industry could catch up with the momentum in the rest of the economy.

Manufacturers of intermediate goods reported a 10.6 percent increase in new orders. Orders for capital goods surged 45.7 percent and that for consumer goods gained 1.1 percent.

Demand in the automotive industry grew markedly by 66.5 percent from the previous month. Still, this was 12.2 percent lower than in February 2020.

Excluding major orders, new orders in manufacturing were 23.8 percent higher than in the previous month.

On a yearly basis, factory orders declined 11.3 percent in June, following a 29.3 percent decrease in May.

Data showed that turnover in manufacturing logged a monthly growth of 12.5 percent versus a 9.7 percent increase in May.