Orders from the euro zone increased by more than twelve percent.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Thanks to good foreign demand, German industry recovered more strongly than expected from the previous collapse in orders in November. The companies drew 3.7 percent more orders on land than in the previous month, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday.
Economists polled by Reuters had only expected growth of 2.1 percent. In October there was still a decline of 5.8 percent. “This provides a positive impetus for the economic outlook, even though the economic activity is still burdened by existing delivery bottlenecks,” said the Federal Ministry of Economics.
The positive performance in November was due to the rise in foreign demand: orders from there rose by 8.0 percent compared to the previous month. Orders from the euro zone increased by 13.1 percent, while those from the rest of the world rose by 5.0 percent.
Domestic orders, on the other hand, fell by 2.5 percent. Sales in industry also developed positively in November: They were 4.2 percent higher in real terms than in the previous month, but remained 3.4 percent below their pre-crisis level of February 2020.
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Even economists have not yet given the all-clear. “The increase is a reaction to the extremely weak previous month, but it does not compensate for the decline there,” said Alexander Krüger, chief economist at the private bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe.
Commerzbank chief economist Jörg Krämer points out the already enormous amount of unprocessed orders. “The industrial companies will work off this mountain of orders by ramping up their production vigorously when the material bottlenecks ease significantly from early summer with falling corona numbers,” said Krämer. There are first signs of relaxation in the auto industry.
Material shortage aggravated again
The industry actually has enough orders to keep production running at full speed. However, important preliminary products such as microchips, which are contained in numerous objects – from cars to household appliances – are missing.
The shortage of materials in industry worsened again at the end of 2021: 81.9 percent of companies complained of bottlenecks and problems in the procurement of preliminary products and raw materials, more than ever before. Since the problems are likely to persist for a while, the upswing this year will be smaller than previously assumed, according to forecasts by leading institutes. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), for example, has lowered its forecast for GDP growth in 2022 from 5.1 to 4.0 percent.
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