The FINANCIAL — Orders for Germany’s plant and machinery industry declined further in May due to weak domestic demand and a sharp drop in orders from other eurozone countries, industry group VDMA said on July 1, according to Nasdaq.
Total German plant and machinery orders in May fell 2% from the year-earlier period; domestic orders dropped 4% from May 2014 and foreign demand was flat, despite a 6% drop in orders from other eurozone countries.
“Germany’s plant and machinery makers are still waiting for a breakthrough,” said Ralph Wiechers, chief economist of VDMA, which represents more than 3,000 Mittelstand firms, or small and medium-sized enterprises in German-speaking countries. The start of the year has been “mixed at best”, he said.
But the financial crisis in Greece has not yet left a mark on German mechanical engineering, Mr. Wiechers said, adding that “Greece is a very small market for us,” accounting for 0.2% of all German machinery exports.
Greece became the first developed country to default on the International Monetary Fund, as the rescue program that has sustained it for five years expired by close-of-business on June 30.
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