Official figures show that German industrial orders plunged by a seasonally adjusted 4% in March, he first fall this year. Economists had expected orders in Europe's biggest economy to be unchanged from February.
Domestic orders fell 3.5%, while orders from abroad were down 4.3%, the economy ministry said. The figures were adjusted to take account of inflation and calendar effects.
The ministry said that there was a significantly below-average number of large orders in March, something which might have skewed the data.
On a less volatile two-monthly comparison, orders were a seasonally adjusted 1.4% higher in February and March compared with December and January. For the first quarter as a whole, orders were 2.3% higher than in the first three months of 2010.
'Despite the recent fall, the recovery trend is continuing,' the ministry said, calling the drop in March part of a 'normalisation' in Europe's top economy after the record recession of 2009 and the strong rebound last year.
