FRANKFURT, GERMANY – German electronics industry orders were down 12.2% year-over-year in December, according to ZVEI.

"Unlike in 2017, there were no large orders this month," said Dr. Andreas Gontermann, ZVEI chief economist.

Domestic sales fell 6.8% in December and 15.8% from abroad. Orders received from countries outside the euro area fell 23.4%. Orders from customers in the eurozone were up 1% year-over-year.

For 2018, orders were down 0.3%.

"Here, too, the comparison with 2017 lags so far, when at that time significantly more large orders had been registered," said Gontermann.

While domestic orders fell 2.3% during 2018, foreign orders rose 1.4%. Growth from the euro area (up 1.5%) and from third-world countries (up 1.4%) were about the same.

At €15.2 billion ($17.1 billion), nominal industry revenues in December were down 11.5% year-over-year. Domestic sales decreased 13.8% to €7.1 billion for the year, while foreign sales fell 9.4% to €8.1 billion. Business with customers from the eurozone declined 14.5% to €2.8 billion in December. Third-world country sales dropped 6.5% to €5.3 billion.

For 2018, aggregated electricity sales totaled a new record of €195 billion, up 1.9% compared to 2017. Domestic and foreign revenues increased 1.5% (to €92.9 billion) and 2.2% (to €102.1 billion), respectively.

Sales with customers from the euro area (up 3.7% to €37.7 billion) grew almost three times as fast as those with business partners from countries outside the common currency area (up 1.3% to €6.4 billion).

Ed.: €1 = US$1.13

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