Schlagwort: industrial orders

It seems that the silver lining at Germany’s economic sky in March (here) and April (here) were indeed nothing more as the lights of the (recessionary) train advancing fast. Already a superficial review of Germany’s economic data shows some severe cracks in the success story of the last years – although it still stands to question whether an actual downturn is already „around the corner“. Still some indicators (insolvencies, ZEW) are positive:

The silver lining at Germany’s economic sky anticipated in my March monthly (here) got even brighter in April 2019. But, as we will see in the following, the positive development hinges on particular factors, which might not last long. But let’s go through the data in the usual order:

While in February, the German economy presented disappointing early indicators (here), March 2019 seemed to confirm the downturn. However, as we will see, between end of March and now mid-April the business climate changed somewhat:

In February 2019, the German economy – if not paralysed (as in the last month, cf. here) – presented disappointing early indicators such as orders and production while other (rather lagging) indicators such as unemployment or corporate insolvencies still show record-low-levels. Let’s look at the development in more detail: