Eurozone Industrial Orders Grow More Than Expected In November

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Eurozone industrial orders rose more than expected in November, data released by the Eurostat showed Friday.

Industrial new orders grew 1.6% month-on-month in November, reversing a revised decline of 1.9% in October. Economists had forecast a modest increase of 0.5%. The most significant improvement was seen annually with the pace of decline easing to just 1.5% from October's revised fall of 14.4%.

Excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipments, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders rose 1.5% month-on-month in November. New orders for intermediate goods increased 1.8% and those for non-durable consumer goods rose 1.2%. Orders were up 0.3% for durable consumer goods, while dropped 1.2% for capital goods.

Recent reports suggest that the Eurozone recovery lost its momentum in January as growth in the private sector slowed. Survey data from the Markit Economics showed on Thursday that the flash composite output index fell in January from December, but continued to stay above no-change mark of 50 to suggest expansion. The index is a weighted average of the manufacturing and services purchasing managers' indexes. Moreover, exports dropped for a second month in November.

Meanwhile, the European Commission released on Thursday a flash estimate for Eurozone consumer confidence for the first time. Consumer confidence rose to minus 15.8 in January from minus 16.1 in December.

The EU27 received 1.8% more orders in November than in October, when orders were down a revised 1.4%. Similar to Eurozone, the pace of annual decline slowed to just 2% in November from a 14.1% in October.

Among the member states for which data were available, manufacturing orders rose in thirteen and fell in eight. The highest increases were registered in Estonia followed by Greece and the Czech Republic, while Hungary, Ireland and Bulgaria recorded largest decreases.

Also on Friday, Germany's Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology released revised figures of industrial new orders for the month of November. Orders rose 2.8% month-on-month in November, a revision from just 0.2% rise reported earlier this month. It follows a 1.9% decline in October. November's annual growth was revised to 4.5% from 1.8% initially published.

Commenting on the German new order figures, Commerzbank economist Simon Junker said the recovery should continue well into the first quarter of 2010 and Germany should record strong sequential growth. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday that he expects the eurozone economy to stage a moderate recovery in 2010, even as he warned that uncertain times lie ahead.

(Market News Provided by RTTNews)