In the European Union, industrial new orders inched up 0.2% in April, after a drop of 1.7% in March, EU’s statistics office Eurostat said.
New orders rose in nine member states for which data are available and fell in thirteen. The highest increases were registered in Ireland (+11.2%), Finland (+7.1%) and Romania, and the largest decreases in Hungary (-9.6%), Latvia (-7.8%) and Bulgaria (-6.7%).
In April compared with the year-earlier month, Romanian industrial orders rose 16.7%, the fifth biggest growth in the EU bloc. In the EU, industrial orders were up 6.9%.
Total manufacturing working on orders rose in 18 and fell in four member states. The highest increases were registered in Estonia (+53.2%), Finland (+28.8%), Lithuania (+21.1%) and Bulgaria (+17.7%), and the decreases in the United Kingdom (-2.8%), Denmark (-2.5%), Poland (-2.4%) and Hungary (-2%).