The euro zone's new industrial orders dropped by 0.4 percent in April, compared with the previous month, the European Union (EU)'s statistics bureau Eurostat said on Friday.

Month on month, the index rose by 2.8 percent in March and declined by 0.6 percent in February.

Excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipment, new industrial orders fell by 1.3 percent in April in the 13-nation bloc sharing the same currency.

In April, new orders for chemicals and chemical products recorded the largest monthly increase of 1.4 percent. Transport equipment rose by 0.9 percent.

Meanwhile, manufacturing of textiles and textile products registered the biggest fall of 6.1 percent, followed by a 4.8-percent decrease in machinery and equipment. Manufacturing of electrical and electronic equipment declined by 3.9 percent.

Compared to a year ago, new industrial orders increased by 12.2 percent in the euro zone.

In the 27-nation EU, new industrial orders also decreased by 0.9 percent in April against a month ago, but the index grew by 12.7 percent compared with April 2006.

Among the member states for which data was available, total manufacturing work on orders rose in eight countries, fell in 11 and remained stable in Slovakia.

The highest monthly increase was recorded in Denmark, which was 5.3 percent, followed by France, 2.1 percent. New Industrial orders in Latvia registered the largest drop of 10.2 percent. The index in Germany, the biggest economy within the EU, fell slightly by 0.9 percent.

Source: Xinhua