German engineering orders deepen decline in March, reports VDMA

BERLIN (Reuters) - German manufacturers deepened a decline in their order books in March, but economists pointed to a high comparative base of the previous year's period and hinted at potential signs of easing, the VDMA association reported on Friday.

Orders fell by 17% in real terms year-on-year in March, but March last year saw the biggest number of orders of the entire year.

"It therefore comes as no surprise that the decline in orders was greater in this month than in the first two months of this year," VDMA's economic expert Olaf Wortmann said.

Furthermore, such a sharp decline might be a sign of the downward trend bottoming out, Wortmann added.

"If you look at the monthly figures along the curve, they confirm our assessment that foreign orders have bottomed out," he said.

Foreign orders fell 15% year-on-year, while the German ones posted a 23% slump in March.

In the less volatile three-month period from January to March, orders fell by 13%.

However, it is still too early to see some substantial signs of relief, as global conflicts and rising protectionism continue to weigh heavily on the world's economy thus hindering investments, Wortmann said.

March CHANGE

overall -17% y/y

of which German -23% y/y

foreign -15% y/y

JAN TO MARCH -13% y/y

of which German -16% y/y

foreign -12% y/y

(Reporting by Andrey Sychev; Editing by Miranda Murray)