Sharecast - Orders declined by 0.4% on the month following a revised 10.9% slump in March, and versus expectations of a 3% jump. Excluding large-scale orders, there was an increase of 1.4% in April on the month.
On the year, orders were down 9.9% in April following an 11.2% fall the month before.
New orders in the consumer goods sector fell by 2.5% and in the capital goods sector by 1.7% in April on the month, while new orders in the intermediate goods sector rose 2.3%.
Domestic orders were up 1.6%, while foreign orders fell 1.8% on the previous month. New orders from the rest of the world were 1.1% lower, while orders from the eurozone were down 2.7%.
Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "We had expected a sizeable rebound in the April report following the crash in March; we were very wrong. Granted, declining major orders- defined as single orders more than €50m - continued to weigh on the headline, but the 1.4% increase in orders excluding this component was still tepid given the nearly 8% plunge, ex-major orders, in March.
"Overall, the poor performance at the start of Q2 leaves German factory orders down just under 10% compared to the level in the first two months of the year, and on track for a significant fall in Q2 as a whole."