New industrial orders in the euro zone came in well below expectations in June, data showed on today.
Orders fell 2.5 per cent month-on-month in the 12-nation single currency area, producing an annual rise of 5.2 per cent, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said.
Economists had expected a 0.5 per cent monthly decline and an 8.2 per cent year-on-year gain.
Excluding volatile orders for ships, railway and aerospace equipment, new orders dropped 2.1 per cent month-on-month for a 6.8 per cent annual increase, according to Eurostat.
Orders were dragged down by volatile demand for transport equipment, which fell 4.4 per cent month-on-month and 6 per cent from the previous year.
Eurostat revised up the new order numbers for May, reporting a 2.7 per cent rise month-on-month and an annual gain of 14.9 per cent versus the previous readings of 2.3 per cent and 14.2 per cent respectively.
In June, orders decreased for all categories of products on a monthly basis, with the smallest falls for textiles and chemicals.
Analysts caution that industrial orders are volatile, making it difficult to predict an economic trend from them.
The figures are unlikely to undermine economists' view that the euro zone economy has been performing well this year, despite interest rate rises by the European Central Bank, high oil prices and a strong euro currency.
Eurostat has estimated that the euro zone economy grew by 0.9 per cent in the second quarter from the January-March period, its fastest quarterly expansion in six years.
In the whole 25-nation EU, industrial new orders fell 1.2 per cent in June from May for an annual increase of 6.4 per cent.
In Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, orders fell 0.6 per cent from May and grew by 2.5 per cent year-on-year.
The biggest monthly rise in the euro zone, 5.3 per cent, was reported in the Netherlands, and the biggest fall came in Belgium, at 4.2 per cent.