WIESBADEN - The number of new orders in manufacturing in Germany decreased significantly in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), real (price adjusted) new orders decreased by a seasonally and calendar adjusted 15.6% in March 2020 compared with February 2020.

Domestic orders decreased by 14.8% and foreign orders fell by 16.1% in March 2020 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area went down 17.9%, and new orders from other countries decreased by 15.0% compared with February 2020.

In March 2020 the manufacturers of intermediate goods saw new orders decrease by 7.5% compared with February 2020. The manufacturers of capital goods saw a decrease of 22.6% on the previous month. Regarding consumer goods, new orders fell 1.3%.

For February 2020, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in a decrease of 1.2% compared with January 2020 (provisional: -1.4%).

According to provisional results, price-adjusted turnover in manufacturing in March 2020 went down a seasonally and calendar adjusted 11.5% on the previous month. In February 2020, the corrected figure showed an increase of 0.5%, compared to January 2020 (provisional: +0.1%).