Aline Schuiling, senior economist at ABN AMRO, points out that the volume of orders received by Germany’s industrial sector continued to decline in August.

“Total orders fell by 0.6% mom after they dropped by 2.1% in July. The weakness was concentrated in domestic orders (-2.6% mom in August), while foreign orders increased (orders from the eurozone rose by 1.5% mom and from non-eurozone countries by 0.4%). The monthly orders data is very volatile and the more stable 3 month-over-3 month growth rate shows that the weakness in orders is actually broadbased, across both geographies (domestic, eurozone and non-eurozone) and main product groups (consumer goods, capital goods and intermediate goods). All in all, the orders data confirm the weak picture already painted by the most recent manufacturing PMI and the Ifo industrial business climate indicator, which each fell in August and September, suggesting that the contraction in Germany’s industrial sector will continue in the second half of the year.”