BERLIN: The latest trade figures released by the German Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, on Friday come a day after another slew of data showed that new industrial orders dropped 3.9 percent in January, significantly worse than the 1.6 percent decline that had been expected by economists.
In addition, German industrial output fell unexpectedly for the second month in a row in January, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economy started the year on a weak footing.
The weak start to the new year is nothing new for the German economy,” Carsten Brzeski of ING Diba said in a note to clients. “It is a phenomenon witnessed more often in recent years that German economic data has been overly sensitive to seasonal effects and vacation planning.”
Unusually warm weather in January resulted in activity in the energy sector falling by 3.3 percent. Construction sank by 2.2 percent, a breakdown of the output data showed. Manufacturing output was hampered by workers’ strikes, the Destatis data showed.
