GERMAN manufacturing orders unexpectedly declined for a fifth month in April, adding to evidence that growth in Europe's largest economy is slowing.
Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, fell 1.8 percent from March, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said yesterday. Economists expected a gain of 0.4 percent, according to the median of 43 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.
It's the first time since July 1992 that manufacturing orders dropped for five consecutive months. Orders rose 15 percent in the year.
German and European manufacturing growth is faltering as near-record oil prices push up inflation and damp the spending power of companies and households just as a surging euro weighs on exports.
The European Central Bank will probably keep its benchmark lending rate at a six-year high as it balances the risks of slower growth against the threat of an inflation spiral.
"The stronger euro is really starting to bite," said Stefan Bielmeier, an economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt.
"Slower growth in the euro area and high inflation in economies that have so far remained fairly resilient will also start to damp demand for German goods."
April is the third month in a row that orders defied economists' expectations of an increase. Foreign orders fell 3.8 percent in the month, while domestic orders gained 0.3 percent. Demand from countries in the euro region declined 5.6 percent and orders from outside the currency area dropped 2.3 percent.
The euro declined to US$1.5380 after the figures were released, from US$1.5403 in Frankfurt.
The currency has fallen 3.2 percent against the dollar in the past six weeks.
Industrial orders "have cooled significantly, albeit from a very high level," the ministry said in a faxed statement.
"Domestic demand has remained more robust than foreign demand, but that trend is also pointing downward."