Eurozone industrial new orders continue to drop in December

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

BRUSSELS, Feb. 24 (Chinese media) -- The eurozone industrial new orders index

plunged in December by 5.2 percent month on month, Eurostat, the European

Union's (EU) statistics office, said Tuesday.

In November, the industrial new orders index in the 16-nation zone fell by

5.4 percent from the previous month.

The eurozone index in December dropped by 22.3 percent year on year after

posting a record drop of 26.2 percent in November, Eurostat said.

Excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to

be more volatile, industrial new orders fell by 4.7 percent in the eurozone. It

was down by 3.4 percent in November.

In the 27-nation EU, industrial new orders plummeted by 6.4 percent in

December after dropping by 5.1 percent in November.

The index in the EU dropped by 23.3 percent year on year following a

decrease of 25.4 percent in the previous month.

Year on year, the total industry, excluding ships, railway and aerospace

equipment, dropped 22.1 percent in the eurozone and 21.2 percent in the EU.

Compared with 2007, the average new orders index for 2008 fell by 5.0

percent in the eurozone and by 4.9 percent in the EU.

In December, orders for basic metals and fabricated metal products in the

eurozone recorded the largest monthly drop of 10.01 percent, while orders for

transport equipment fell by 4.6 percent month on month. Manufacturing of

machinery and equipment declined by 12.3 percent.

New orders for chemicals and chemical products decreased by 4.3percent and

manufacturing of electrical and electronic equipment fell by 1.7 percent. New

orders for textiles and textile products dipped by 0.5 percent after growing by

1.6 percent in November.

Among the member states for which data were available for December, total

manufacturing working on orders fell in 16 countries and rose only in four on a

monthly basis.

The largest decrease was recorded in the Netherlands with a drop of 15.1

percent.

In annual changes, total manufacturing working on orders fell in all the

member states for which data were available. The most significant falls were

registered in Hungary (minus 37.2 percent), Slovakia (minus 35.0 percent), the

Netherlands (minus 31.1 percent) and Spain (minus 30.3 percent).