Eurozone industrial orders fall

The German economy grew 0.7 percent in the third quarter, but there were further signs yesterday that the eurozone economy is slowing.

From Reuters:

The European Union statistics office said on Thursday that orders in the 13 countries using the euro fell 1.6 percent month-on-month and rose 2.0 percent year-on-year...

Eurostat revised its August data upwards to increases of 0.8 percent from the previous month and 5.3 percent versus a year earlier, versus the previously reported rises of 0.3 percent monthly and 5.1 percent year-on-year.

Slower growth ahead for the euro zone appears to be the consensus among economists now.

"We have all the ingredients coming together for a very sharp slowdown in euro zone growth next year," said David Brown, an economist at Bear Stearns International...

"September's marked fall in industrial orders adds to the evidence that the euro zone manufacturing sector is being increasingly pressurised by the very strong euro, elevated oil prices, higher interest rates and the credit crunch," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at Global Insight...

"If you look at the longer run you see that the momentum is decelerating in orders, and this is in line with what we are seeing in Germany," said Christoph Weil, European economist at Commerzbank.