Industrial new orders in the eurozone fell by 2.1 percent in July compared with the previous month, the European Union (EU) statistics office Eurostat said on Thursday.
Excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipment, whose changes tend to be more volatile, eurozone industrial new orders increased by 1.4 percent in July compared with the previous month.
Month-on-month, new orders for capital goods registered a decrease of 2.5 percent in July, while non-durable consumer goods shrank by 0.1 percent. Intermediate goods gained 2.3 percent and durable consumer goods saw a significant increase of 5.1 percent.
On a yearly basis, the industrial new orders rose by 8.4 percent in the eurozone in July.
For the 27-nation EU, industrial new orders decreased by 0.8 percent in July compared with the previous month, and rose by 6.8 percent year on year.
Among those member states for which data were available, total manufacturing working on orders fell in 11 and rose in 11 on a monthly basis. The highest increase was registered in Sweden, up by 5.8 percent, while the largest decrease was seen in France, down by 11.2 percent.