German manufacturing industry records falling orders in February

New orders in Germany's manufacturing industry in February declined 2.2 percent month-on-month, but were still 2.9 percent higher than a year ago, according to provisional data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Wednesday.

The monthly decline in February was "mainly due to orders abroad" as international orders fell by 3.3 percent, according to Destatis. Domestic orders only fell slightly by 0.2 percent.

Real turnover in German manufacturing decreased by 1.4 percent month-on-month. Compared with February last year, turnover was up 4.2 percent on a calendar-adjusted basis.

The continuing order backlog in many sectors resulting from supply bottlenecks for intermediate products "went slightly back to normal due to the decrease in new orders in February 2022," Destatis noted.

Due to "immense uncertainties and ever new bottlenecks in production," the Federation of German Industries (BDI) refrained from issuing a detailed economic forecast. "The economic outlook looks very bleak," BDI President Siegfried Russwurm said on Monday.