INCOMING orders to German industry rose for the second month in a row in December, official figures published today showed, after the economy was buffeted by supply bottlenecks last year.

The indicator, which gives a foretaste of industrial production, climbed by 2.8% in December over the previous month, having risen by 3.6% in November, according to revised figures from the federal statistics agency Destatis.

Over the whole of 2021, orders were 17.8% higher than in 2020, when the economy was laid low by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2021 figure was also 9.3% higher than the pre-crisis year 2019, but the strong rebound in demand has so far been trailed by production as bottlenecks have hampered industry.

Domestic orders saw a particularly strong rise in December on the previous month, up 11.7%, while orders from outside Germany fell by 3%.

Demand from inside the eurozone fell further, with orders down by 4.2%, while other countries only say their orders decrease by 2.3%.

“Businesses are very clearly geared up for a recovery and are in the starting blocks for an upswing,” said Jens-Oliver Niklasch, senior economist at the LBBW bank.

Key to a strong recovery would be “the end of corona restrictions and certainty in supply chains”, Niklasch said. – AFP, February 4, 2022.