German industrial orders end good run with December fall

BERLIN: German industrial orders fell in December for the first time in seven months as Covid-19 restrictions squeezed demand, official data showed Friday.

Orders fell 1.9 percent compared with November 2020, but were still 6.4 percent higher than in December 2019, figures from the federal statistics agency Destatis showed.

They were also 2.6 percent higher than in February 2020, before measures to curb the first wave of the virus were ordered worldwide.

Orders fell 7.2 percent over the whole of 2020 compared with the previous year.

Industrial orders are widely tracked as a key indicator of future activity, especially in manufacturing powerhouse Germany.