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By Maria Martinez
(Reuters) -German industrial orders stagnated in February and January's drop was revised to be less steep, showing that Germany's industrial sector slump could have bottomed out, but the recovery may be slow as the impact of U.S. tariffs takes hold.
A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a rise of 3.5%, but orders remained unchanged compared with the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said on Friday.
The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed that new orders in the period from December to February were 1.6% lower than in the previous three months.
"The order situation remains bleak," said Alexander Krueger, chief economist at Hauck Aufhaeuser Lampe Privatbank. "U.S. tariffs are putting even more pressure on industry and job losses are likely to continue."
The far-reaching tariffs announced by the U.S. will deal a major blow to German industry. The U.S. was Germany's biggest trading partner in 2024, according to the statistics office, with 253 billion euros worth of goods exchanged between them.
Germany's manufacturing sector nonetheless showed signs of recovery in March, with its first production increase in nearly two years, the HCOB Germany manufacturing PMI showed on Tuesday.
Ralph Solveen, senior economist at Commerzbank, said orders had been moving sideways at a low level for about a year.
Although sentiment indicators suggest that a gradual recovery is on the cards for the coming months, this is likely to be very modest due to the massive increase in U.S. tariffs, Solveen said.
"The economy remains in the doldrums," Jupp Zenzen, economic expert at the German Chamber of Commerce DIHK, said.
Breaking down the figures, the statistics office said domestic orders were down 1.2% on the month, while foreign orders rose by 0.8%.
The statistics office also revised new orders in January to a 5.5% decline instead of a 7.0% decrease. The difference from the provisional result is due to late reporting of data in the manufacture of metals, machinery and equipment and the automotive industry.
(Reporting by Bernadette Hogg and Amir Orusov in Gdansk, Maria Martinez in Berlin; Editing by Friederike Heine and Alison Williams)
