German industrial companies received significantly fewer orders in January compared to the previous month, according to official data released on Monday, reported dpa.
Seasonally and calendar-adjusted order intake fell by 11.1% compared to December, the Federal Statistical Office said.
Analysts were surprised by the scale of the decline in orders. On average, experts had expected a decline of only 4.3%.
Order intake in December was also weaker than previously estimated. The statistics office revised the increase to only 6.4%month-on-month, after previously reporting an increase of 7.8%.
Year-on-year, order intake rose by 3.7% in January.
Once again, large orders had a large effect on the figures. Excluding these, order intake in January was only 0.4% lower than in the previous month.
"Following the very high volume of large-scale orders in December 2025, new orders were back to normal in several branches of manufacturing in January 2026," the Wiesbaden-based agency said.
Production in the manufacturing sector also proved unexpectedly weak in January, seeing a 0.5% month-on-month decline despite analysts' forecast of 1% growth.
Year-on-year, production in industrial companies fell by 1.2%, which was also a larger fall than expected.
- German firms
- Order
- Drops
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
