German Industrial Orders Stagnate in February, Slow Recovery Ahead
By Maria Martinez
(Reuters) - German industrial orders stagnated in February and January data were upwardly revised, showing that Germany's industrial sector could have bottomed out but the recovery may be slow.
Orders remained unchanged in February on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said on Friday.
A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a rise of 3.5%.
The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed that new orders in the period from December to February were 1.6% lower than in the previous three months.
The statistics office also revised new orders in January to a 5.5% decline instead of a 7.0% decrease. The difference from the provisional result is due to late reporting of data in the manufacture of basic metals, machinery and equipment and the automotive industry.
Germany's manufacturing sector showed signs of recovery in March, with its first production increase in nearly two years, the HCOB Germany manufacturing PMI showed on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Bernadette Hogg and Amir Orusov in Gdansk, Maria Martinez in Berlin; Editing by Friederike Heine)
