Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had anticipated a slight yearly increase of 0.4 percent. All major German industrial groups reported fewer orders than in the previous month, a ministry statement said.
Domestic as well as foreign orders fell in October, it said, the the annual
decrease was slightly better than September’s rate of 8.3 percent, which came
as Germany officially entered recession with two consecutive quarters of
economic contraction.
The latest figures suggested that any rebound was months away, and came as
the German central bank forecast that economic activity would contract by a
further 0.8 percent in 2009. In 2010, the Bundesbank expected the economy to expand by 1.2 percent.
Germany, still the world’s leading exporter, has been hit in particular by slumping demand in eurozone partner countries, the economy ministry said.
Its data confirmed information published recently by Germany companies, notably auto manufacturers, chemical groups, and makers of machine tools. The machine tool federation VDMA announced this week an annualised 16 percent drop in October orders.
The trend is nowhere near an end moreover, the car maker BMW saw its sales fall by 25 percent in November and heavy truck maker MAN has said it expects sales to plunge by 30 percent next year.
With orders still in a tailspin, “industrial production will continue to fall in the months to come,” the Economy Ministry forecast.