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Daimler plant in Sindelfingen
Photo: Silas Stein / dpa
At the end of 2020, German industry recorded a decline in orders for the first time in eight months.
In December, orders fell by 1.9 percent compared to the previous month, announced the Federal Ministry of Economics.
The minus was thus stronger than expected.
In November there was an increase of 2.7 percent.
However, the pre-crisis level has now been noticeably exceeded by the race to catch up in recent months: Measured in February 2020, the month before the start of the restrictions in the wake of the corona pandemic, orders are 2.6 percent higher.
In 2020 as a whole, however, the calendar-adjusted order intake was 7.2 percent lower than in the previous year.
"Incoming orders in the manufacturing sector fell slightly in December in view of the tightened lockdown," said the ministry.
However, they would be well above the level before the outbreak of the pandemic in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The shutdown, which began in November and was recently tightened, is primarily causing problems for restaurateurs, service providers and downtown retailers.
Industry can count on the fact that foreign business will pick up more momentum with the expected recovery of the global economy.
In December, however, the export orders fell by 2.6 percent more strongly than those from Germany with 0.9 percent.
Orders from the euro zone, which was badly affected by the second wave of pandemics, fell by 7.5 percent, while those from the rest of the world rose by 0.5 percent.
Icon: The mirror
fdi / Reuters
