Euro Zone Industrial Orders Continue Their Decline in June

(CEP News) Frankfurt - Euro zone industrial new orders fell 7.4% on a yearly basis in June, overshadowing the 6.3% decline expected as well as the 4.4% annualized fall seen in May, according to figures released by Eurostat on Friday. Among the euro zone states for which there is data, orders in France saw the most notable falls, slipping 16.9% in June 2008 compared to the same month one year ago, followed by Spain, which saw a 6.5% decline in new orders over the same period. Conversely, Portuguese industrial orders shot up 19.7% in the year ending in June as Greece saw its industrial orders' level rise 10.9% year-over-year. In monthly terms, industrial new orders' levels slipped 0.3% in June. However, economists had expected a more pronounced decline of 1.1% after orders had fallen 5.4% from April to May. Meanwhile, May's monthly figure was revised down from an initial reading of -3.5%. By Todd Wailoo, twailoo@economicnews.caThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Nancy Girgis, ngirgis@economicnews.ca