Based on provisional data, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that price-adjusted new orders in manufacturing had increased in April 2019 a seasonally and calendar adjusted 0.3% on the previous month. Economists had expected a 0.1% increase.

For March 2019, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in an increase of 0.8% compared with February 2019 (provisional: +0.6%). Price-adjusted new orders without major orders in manufacturing had increased in April 2019 a seasonally and calendar adjusted 2.1% on the previous month.

Domestic orders decreased by 0.8% and foreign orders rose by 1.1% in April 2019 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area were down 5.8%, new orders from other countries increased 5.7% compared to March 2019.

In April 2019 the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders fall by 0.4% compared with March 2019. The manufacturers of capital goods showed increases of 0.9% on the previous month. For consumer goods, an increase in new orders of 0.1% was recorded.