Global Economic Collapse: German factory orders slump continues. 6.7% year-on-year decline in August.

The slowdown fears that gripped markets last week are intensifying this morning, as the slump across Germany’s manufacturing base deepens.

German factory orders slumped by 6.7% year-on-year in August, new figures from Destatis reveal, extending the decline which began almost two years ago.

On a monthly basis, factory orders were down 0.6% compared with July – weaker than that 0.3% which economists expected. That follows a 2.1% slump in July, compared with June.

The slump was driven by a decline in orders from within Germany, which highlights the risk that Europe’s largest economy is in recession. There was a small pick-up in orders from abroad.

Destatis explains:

Domestic orders decreased by 2.6% and foreign orders increased by 0.9% in August 2019 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area were up 1.5%, new orders from other countries rose 0.4% compared to July 2019.

German manufacturers also reported a 1.6% monthly decline in orders for ‘capital goods’, or heavy-duty machinery and equipment. Consumer goods orders fell 0.9%, while intermediate goods jumped by 1.1% compared with July.

Germany’s factories have suffered badly from the US-China trade war, the slowdown in the eurozone, and economic problems at home.

Last week, a flurry of PMI reports showed that global manufacturing is shrinking,