Based on provisional data, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that price-adjusted new orders in manufacturing had decreased in May 2019 a seasonally and calendar adjusted 2.2% on the previous month. Economists had expected a 0.1% decrease. For April 2019, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in an increase of 0.4% compared with March 2019 (provisional: +0.3%). Price-adjusted new orders without major orders in manufacturing had decreased in May 2019 a seasonally and calendar adjusted 3.0% on the previous month.

Domestic orders increased by 0.7% and foreign orders fell by 4.3% in May 2019 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area were down 1.7%, new orders from other countries decreased 5.7% compared to April 2019.

In May 2019 the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders fall by 1.5% compared with April 2019. The manufacturers of capital goods showed decreases of 2.8% on the previous month. For consumer goods, a decrease in new orders of 0.7% was recorded.