German industrial orders fell unexpectedly in April by 0.4% on 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 3.0% increase.
Year-on-year, industrial orders were down 9.9% in April.
New orders are very weak while the backlog of orders remains high, Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, told Reuters.
"Companies will continue to produce, but new orders are not coming in as much as usual, so there is no reason to ramp up production," Schmieding said.
"Production has no scope to rebound further," said Franzisca Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics. "New demand is very niche."
The statistics office publishes more economic data on its website.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez in Berlin and Anastasiia Kozlova in Gdansk, Editing by Rachel More)
