GDANSK/BERLIN (Oct 6): German industrial orders fell sharply in August as large-scale orders for aircraft, ships, trains, and military vehicles declined.

New orders declined by 10.6% from the previous month on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said on Tuesday.

A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a fall of 1.0%.

The decline is entirely attributable to a 61.5% decline in what the statistics office classifies as "other transport equipment," after having more than doubled in July due to an exceptionally high volume of large-scale orders of ships, railway rolling stock and aircraft.

When large-scale orders are excluded, new orders in August were 0.1% lower than in the previous month.

The less volatile three-month comparison showed that new orders in the period from June to August were 1.3% higher than in the previous three months.

After revision of provisional data, new orders in July increased by 3.2% on June, while the provisional reading was 2.5%.

Foreign orders were down 5.4% in August on the month, with orders from the euro zone registering a decline of 5.4% and orders from outside the euro zone decreasing by 5.5%.

Domestic orders declined by 17.3% on the month.

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