Romania holds third spot in the EU new manufacturing orders index

Gabriel Niţulescu

In April, the number of new orders for the manufacturing industry increased 2.7% over March, thus having Romania take the third spot in the EU chart for manufacturing orders, as shown by a press release of The Statistics Office of the European Community (Eurostat) published at the end of last week. The highest increases were registered in Latvia (+11.3%), Bulgaria (+9.6%). Other three states of the EU saw an increase in the number of new orders for the manufacturing industry, but below those of Romania, while 12 other countries saw a drop of this index, and Great Britain"s status remain unchanged, compared to the month of March.

Portugal (-22.9%), Denmark (-13.5%) and Hungary (-10.4%) saw the largest decreases in industrial orders. Data for April was not available for eight countries.

Industrial orders for EU27 countries dropped 0.5% in April over March, whereas the index dropped 1% for Eurozone countries for the same period.

Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, (which hold a 3% share in the industry of the EU), industrial new orders decreased by 0.9% in the euro area, but increased by 0.3% in the EU27.

France was the only one of Romania"s trade partners to have a positive evolution in April (+0.5%). The other countries saw their industrial orders drop: Germany (-1.1%), Italy (-3.1%), Hungary (-10.4%) and Holland (-4.4%), which could negatively affect the evolution of Romanian exports in the future. Compared to April 2008, the new orders index dropped 35% for EU 27 and 35.5% for the Eurozone (-7.4% and -8.9% respectively for non-durable consumer goods; -22.6%, and -26% respectively, for durable consumer goods; -36.3%,and -38.3% for intermediate goods; -39.5% and-39.1% respectively, for capital goods).

Comparing April 2008 and April 2009, it becomes visible that none of the EU27 countries escaped the contraction of new industrial orders.

The largest falls were registered in Estonia (-44.4%), Germany (-39.5%) and Lithuania (-39.4%), and the smallest in Poland (-20.3%), Latvia (-22.1%) and Romania (-24.1%).