(Adds details from statement, comment from economist)
May 5 (Reuters) - German industrial orders fell
significantly more than expected in March, decreasing by 10.7%
from the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted
basis, the federal statistics office said on Friday.
A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a 2.2% decrease.
It marks the largest month-on-month decline since 2020 at
the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The vehicle construction sector had a particularly strong
impact on the result, with incoming orders falling by 47.4%
compared with the previous month. There was a large increase in
orders in February that failed to materialise a month later, the
office said.
"After three increases in a row, new orders literally
collapsed in March, thus resumed their downward trend,"
Commerzbank's chief economist Joerg Kraemer said.
"Increasing risks for the export-oriented German
industry come from the global interest rate hikes. In addition,
the impetus from working off orders that had been stuck due to a
lack of materials is waning," Kraemer added.
Foreign orders fell by 13.3% from the previous month while
domestic orders decreased by 6.8%.
The statistics office publishes more economic data on its
website.
(Reporting by Tristan Veyet in Gdansk; Editing by Friederike
Heine and Toby Chopra)
