Markets fall as Germany fails to sell 35pc of the bonds it offers at auction

"The scale of the deterioration is surprising, but it seems that manufacturing is the sector probably most affected by the spillover from the financial tensions of the sovereign debt crisis, because it is highly cyclical," said Clemente de Lucia, economist at BNP Paribas.The 17 nations using the euro suffered the deepest fall in new industrial orders since December 2008, well below analysts' forecasts of a 2.5pc fall. The core nations of Germany, France, Italy and Spain all registered sharp contractions, the EU's statistics office said. The 6.4pc drop in orders of capital goods, which indicates investment in new machinery, shows factory managers are pulling back on expansion plans and hoarding cash as the debt crisis shatters business confidence. Falling export demand from Asia, fewer new orders, unemployment at 10pc and weak consumer confidence are combining to create a very difficult business environment. "This clearly indicates that we are now entering into a recession," said Peter Vanden Houte, economist at ING. "It is now very clear that this debt crisis has also affected the real economy, and the real economy is now going down." He said banks in peripheral eurozone countries are facing deposit withdrawals that could create a credit crunch, further slashing industrial orders. He said output in the fourth quarter will be "quite negative", as could the first quarter of 2012.