Ukraine crisis sours German industrial orders

The crisis in Ukraine is beginning to hurt the German economy, with industrial orders, a key measure of demand for German-made goods, taking an unexpected hit in March, data showed on Wednesday. After rising consistently for the preceding four months, industrial orders were down 2.8 percent month-on-month in March, the economy ministry said in a statement. In February, factory orders had increased by 0.9 percent. The ministry attributed the March decline to a sharp drop in foreign orders, particularly those coming from the eurozone. Overall export orders were down by as much as 4.6 percent with orders from the single currency area nose-diving by 9.4 percent, according to AFP.