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Car manufacturer in Wolfsburg: growing demand
Photo: Swen Pförtner / DPA
While many industries are suffering from the consequences of the corona crisis, German industry is still proving to be robust - and is recording more orders.
In January, the manufacturing industry received 1.4 percent more orders than in the previous month, said the Federal Statistical Office.
The situation thus developed even better than analysts had expected.
Experts had expected an average increase of 0.5 percent.
In December, orders had fallen by 2.2 percent.
Compared to the same month last year, orders rose by 2.5 percent at the beginning of the year.
The level before the corona crisis of February 2020 was exceeded by 3.7 percent.
German industry is still doing robustly.
Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank
"German industry is still doing robustly," commented Thomas Gitzel, VP Bank's chief economist.
For some time now, the industry has provided an economic compensation for the weak development of service providers who are suffering from the major restrictions on public life due to the corona pandemic.
Support came from abroad at the start of the year.
Orders from there increased by 4.2 percent, while domestic demand fell by 2.6 percent.
In January, more orders came from both the euro area and outside the currency area.
According to the goods group, orders for capital goods such as machines rose significantly by 3.3 percent.
Intermediate goods were only ordered a little more than in the previous month.
Consumer goods, on the other hand, were ordered significantly less than in December, with orders falling by 5.8 percent.
The Federal Ministry of Economics commented that incoming orders had resumed their upward trend at the beginning of the year.
Orders in important industries in particular developed positively.
In the automotive sector, orders rose by 2.3 percent, and mechanical engineering companies received 3.4 percent more orders
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