By Maria Martinez
BERLIN, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Germany’s manufacturing sector experienced a marked deterioration in business conditions in November, as new orders fell at the fastest rate in ten months, a business survey showed on Monday.
The HCOB Germany Manufacturing PMI compiled by S&P Global fell to 48.2 in November from 49.6 in October, marking a nine-month low and remaining below the 50.0 threshold that indicates contraction.
“Germany’s manufacturing sector appears to be unable to cross the threshold to expansion,” said Cyrus de la Rubia, Chief Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank AG.
This decline was largely driven by a renewed drop in new orders, with exports suffering their steepest fall this year amid weaker demand from Asia, Europe, and North America.
Despite a ninth consecutive month of increased production volumes, growth slowed to its weakest pace since July.
“Although companies have now been increasing production for nine months in a row, other indicators such as order intakes, employment, and inventories clearly show how bad the situation in industry still is,” de la Rubia said.
Employment continued to decline, though at a slightly slower pace than in October, as firms reduced staffing through redundancies and non-renewal of contracts.
Business confidence improved slightly but remained below historical averages, with concerns over falling backlogs and the domestic automotive sector affecting sentiment.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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