German Factory Orders Plunge

Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesGerman chancellor Angela Merkel.

BERLIN (AP) - German factory orders were down in June compared to the previous month due to a decrease of large orders.

The Federal Statistics Office said Wednesday that industrial orders were 3.2 percent lower than in May, when they also fell by 1.6 percent.

Orders from inside Germany dropped 1.9 percent and those from countries outside the euro zone fell by 4.1 percent.

New orders from other countries in the 18-nation Eurozone fell by 10.4 percent.

The Federal Statistics Office said that geopolitical developments and risks were a likely cause for the decrease in new orders and that they expected only moderate development in the coming months.

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