French Manufacturing New Orders Increase In July

In contrast to last week's report of a decline in German new orders for manufacturing, France, today, reported an increase in new orders for manufacturing from 91.1 (2005=100) in June to 92.7 in July. The level of French new orders is still below the base year of 2005, while that of Germany is some 10% above its 2005 level. Moreover, the rise in French new orders has been slower and more erratic than that in Germany, as can be seem in the first chart that shows the indexes of the value of manufacturing new orders in the two countries. Although the data are seasonally adjusted there are considerable ups and downs in the month to month changes in both series.

French new orders from the Euro Area and from all other areas are reported for total new orders excluding heavy transport equipment and are shown in the second chart. France's total new orders in this series rose from 91.2 in June to 93.6 in July. New orders from the Euro area fell from 93.2 in June to 92.5 in July but new orders from the rest of the world rose from 94.2 in June to 99.9 in July.

In the table below, in addition to data for the months since February, 2010, the low point of the series and its date are shown. The German increase in new orders from its low point has been almost twice that of France: 20.7 points vs. 11.5.