German factory orders fell 10.6% in August on a one-off transport-equipment swing, while the eurozone construction PMI held at 43.4, extending a four-year contraction. The services PMI hit a 41-month high of 53.1, which is testing the ECB's rate path to 2.50%.
Holger Zschäpitz notes that despite August’s 10.6% orders collapse, German manufacturers still had a record nine months of work in the books as of July, even as underlying demand stayed weak. Source
German factory orders collapsed 10.6% month-on-month in August, Destatis (Germany's federal statistics office) reported Tuesday, against a consensus near −0.9% to −1.0% and a sharply revised +3.2% in July. It's the kind of print that makes headlines and tells you almost nothing about the German economy.
