AFP - German industrial orders, a key measure of demand for goods in Europe’s top economy, declined in December, weighed down by falling domestic and eurozone demand, the economy ministry said yesterday.

Provisional official data showed a decrease in orders of 0.7 percent month-on-month in December, following an increase of 1.5 percent in November. Analysts polled by financial services firm FactSet had pencilled in a slightly shallower decline of 0.3 percent for December.

The drop was attributable to weaker domestic and eurozone demand for German-made goods, with eurozone orders falling by 6.9 percent and domestic orders down 2.5 percent, the ministry calculated.
Orders from outside the eurozone increased by 5.5 percent and foreign orders overall were up 0.6 percent.