According to a statement released on February 22 by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, the new industrial orders index in the European Union member states (EU-27) rose by 1.3 percent month on month in December 2011, after a revised month-on-month decrease of 1.2 percent recorded in November. The year-on-year decrease in December 2011 was recorded at 1.7 percent in the region.
On the other hand, in December new industrial orders in the EU-27, excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipment for which changes tend to be more volatile, increased by 2.6 percent month on month and were up by 0.9 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, in the EU-27 the average new orders index for the whole of 2011 increased by 7.6 percent compared with 2010.
In the EU-27 in the last month of 2011, new orders rose by 1.7 percent for capital goods and by 1.9 percent for intermediate goods, while new orders fell by 0.1 percent for durable consumer goods, all compared to November.
On month-on-month basis, among the member states for which data are available, total new industrial orders fell in 13 member states and rose in nine. The largest decreases were registered in Hungary with 14.8 percent, in Slovenia with 4.2 percent and in Portugal and the Netherlands both with 2.5 percent, while the highest increases were seen in Denmark with 19.4 percent, in Sweden with 10.4 percent and in Italy with eight percent.