(Reuters) -German industrial orders fell much more than expected in May due to a one-off effect, official data showed on Friday.
Orders declined by 1.4% on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a fall of 0.1%.
The slump was primarily due to the substantial decline of 17.7% month-on-month in orders in the computer, electronic and optical products sector, where several large-scale orders were recorded in April.
Furthermore, strong decreases were also observed in the electrical equipment and basic metals sectors.
Foreign orders rose by 2.9% on the month, with orders from the euro zone decreasing by 6.5% and orders from outside the euro area increasing by 9.0%.
Domestic orders fell by 7.8% on the month, the statistics office said.
The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed that new orders in the period from March to May were 2.1% higher than in the previous three months.
(Reporting by Daria Bogdanska in Gdansk and Maria Martinez in BerlinEditing by Ludwig Burger)
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