www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/291/eurozone-industrial-orders-growth-slows
27 April 2011
The growth of industrial new orders in the eurozone slowed in February contrary to predictions, data released today by Eurostat shows.
In January the index grew by 1.2 per cent but that fell to 0.9 per cent in February – whereas forecasts had put it closer to 1.5 per cent. January's figure was originally estimated at just 0.1 per cent but has been revised significantly upwards. Over the 12 months to February new orders grew by 21.3 per cent which was also slightly less than economists had expected.
Across the European Union as a whole, industrial new orders were up 1.2 per cent in February compared to 0.5 per cent in January, and by 19.8 per cent over the whole year.
The strongest monthly growth was in Denmark at 16.3 per cent followed by Hungary, 10.9 per cent, and Portugal, 5.4 per cent. But in Romania new orders fell 4.7 per cent, in Lithuania 2.7 per cent and in the Czech Republic 2.1 per cent.
Over the year, the biggest increases were 60.1 per cent in Estonia, 57.9 per cent in Denmark and 56.1 per cent in Latvia. Between February 2010 and February 2011 total orders grew in every member state where figures were available – the lowest growth was 7.1 per cent in the United Kingdom, followed by 10 per cent in Spain and 12.5 per cent in the Czech Republic.
The new orders index "measures the value of future deliveries of products and services to be provided by a producer to a third party on the domestic and non-domestic market". |