BERLIN, March 8 (Xinhua) -- New orders in Germany's manufacturing decreased by 3.9 percent in January 2018 than in December 2017 after seasonal and working-day adjustments, provisional data of the Federal Statistical Office showed on Thursday.
Experts had initially expected a decline of 1.6 percent.
Domestic orders decreased by 2.8 percent and foreign orders decreased by 4.6 percent on the previous month. New orders from the euro area were down by 5.9 percent, while new orders from other countries fell by 3.8 percent compared to December 2017, according to the data.
In addition, both manufacturers of intermediate goods and capital goods experienced declines compared with the previous month. Only manufacturers of consumer goods saw an increase in new orders of 2.4 percent.
However, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said in a statement that new orders in January were 8.2 percent higher year on year.
Meanwhile, international sentiment indicators point to a continuation of the global recovery. "German industry should therefore continue its positive development," the statement read.
