Further signs of slump in eurozone

EUROPEAN industrial orders increased less than economists estimated in October, adding to signs of a deepening economic slump in the single-currency region.

Orders in the 17-nation euro region rose 1.8% from September, when they dropped 7.8%, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said yesterday. Economists had forecast orders to increase 2.5%, the median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Producer-price inflation slowed to 5.3% in November from 5.5% in the previous month, a separate report showed.