German industrial orders rise again in December

Incoming orders to German industry rose for the second month in a row in December, official figures published Friday showed, after the economy was buffeted by supply bottlenecks in 2021.

The indicator, which gives a foretaste of industrial production, climbed by 2.8 percent in December over the previous month, having risen by 3.6 percent in November, according to revised figures from the federal statistics agency Destatis.

Over the whole of 2021, orders were 17.8 percent higher than in 2020, when the economy was laid low by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2021 figure was also 9.3 percent higher than the pre-crisis year 2019, but the strong bounceback in demand has so far been trailed by production as bottlenecks have hampered industry.

Domestic orders saw a particularly strong rise in December on the previous month, up 11.7 percent, while orders from outside Germany fell by three percent.

Demand from inside the eurozone fell further, with orders down by 4.2 percent, while other countries only say their orders decrease by 2.3 percent.

“Businesses are very clearly geared up for a recovery and are in the starting blocks for an upswing,” said Jens-Oliver Niklasch, senior economist at the LBBW bank.

Key to a strong recovery would be “the end of corona restrictions and certainty in supply chains”, Niklasch said.