October 2011 compared with September 2011 Industrial new orders ...

In October 2011 compared with September 2011, the euro area1 (EA17) industrial new orders index2 rose by 1.8%, after a fall of 7.8% in September3. In the EU271 new orders increased by 0.5% in October 2011, after a fall of 2.1% in September3. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment4, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders dropped by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.9% in the EU27.

In October 2011 compared with October 2010, industrial new orders increased by 1.6% in the euro area and by 2.6% in the EU27. Total industry excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment4 rose by 1.9% and 2.4% respectively.

These estimates are released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Monthly comparison

In October 2011 compared with September 2011, new orders for capital goods rose by 1.6% in the euro area and by 1.4% in the EU27. Intermediate goods declined by 0.2% and 0.6% respectively. Non-durable consumer goods dropped by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.2% in the EU27. Durable consumer goods decreased by 2.3% and 0.4% respectively.

Among the Member States for which data are available, total manufacturing working on orders rose in five and fell in twenty-one. The highest increases were registered in Germany (+5.5%), the United Kingdom (+2.9%) and Estonia (+2.4%), and the largest decreases in Denmark (-18.5%), Latvia (-13.3%) and Lithuania (-12.7%).

Annual comparison

In October 2011 compared with October 2010, new orders for capital goods rose by 2.7% in the euro area and by 4.1% in the EU27. Intermediate goods increased by 1.4% and 2.3% respectively. Non-durable consumer goods fell by 1.0% in the euro area and by 1.5% in the EU27. Durable consumer goods decreased by 4.9% and 5.9% respectively.

Among the Member States for which data are available, total manufacturing working on orders rose in thirteen, fell in twelve and remained stable in Portugal. The highest increases were registered in Estonia (+17.8%), Denmark (+13.2%) and Bulgaria (+11.0%), and the largest decreases in Greece (-15.8%), Malta (-8.5%) and Ireland
(-6.7%).

1. The euro area (EA17) includes Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

1. The new orders index measures the value of future deliveries of products and services (which are directly linked to these products) to be provided by a producer to a third party on the domestic and non-domestic market. The total manufacturing aggregate includes only those NACE levels required by the STS Regulation to be supplied by the Member States (NACE 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 24 to 30) and is referred to as “total manufacturing working on orders”. The euro area and EU aggregates normally do not include Member States for which no data is available.

The seasonally adjusted euro area and EU series are calculated by aggregating the working day adjusted series for individual Member States and performing an adjustment for seasonal effects on these series. Therefore the seasonally adjusted figures for the European aggregates are based directly on the working day adjusted series for the Member States and not on an aggregation of the seasonally adjusted indices from the Member States. The euro area and EU seasonally adjusted growth rates might differ from the weighted growth rates of the individual Member States. This procedure also implies that the aggregation of the overall figures is not based on the published details.

Working day adjusted data for Germany, Ireland, Spain, Latvia, Malta and Finland are calculated by the National Statistical Institutes of the corresponding Member States, using their own national calendar information. Working day adjusted data for all other Member States are calculated by Eurostat based on gross data provided by the Member States, using a standard calendar.

Due to the volatility of industrial new orders, the figures can vary significantly from month to month and therefore short-term movements should be interpreted with caution.

The weights of the Member States in the EU and euro area aggregates can be found at:

http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/dsis/ebt/library?l=/sts_weights_public&vm=detailed&sb=Title

More detailed data can be found in the short-term statistics database on the Eurostat website:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/short_term_business_statistics/data/database

1. Data of previous months have been revised compared with those issued in News Release 170/2011 of 23 November 2011. The monthly growth rates for September 2011 have been revised from -6.4% to -7.8% for the euro area and from -2.3% to
-2.1% for the EU27. The annual growth rate remains unchanged at +1.6% for the euro area and has been revised from +2.3% to +2.4% for the EU27.

2. New orders for heavy transport equipment (NACE 30, which includes ships, railway and aerospace equipment) tend to be very volatile with a limited immediate impact on production. The aggregate “Manufacturing working on orders excluding heavy transport equipment” is less erratic. The share of heavy transport equipment in total manufacturing working on orders can be found in the document referred to in note no. 2.