Orders for German machinery and factory equipment showed another sharp year-on-year decline in May as the global recession caused a slack in demand, an industry group said Wednesday.

The VDMA group said orders were down 48 percent on the year in May. While sharp, that was still an improvement on the 58 percent drop seen in April.

Orders from inside Germany were down 42 percent in May, while those from abroad were down 51 percent.

The group said customers worldwide did not yet have sufficiently positive expectations for the economy and their businesses to warrant ordering new machinery.

"So far, there has been little relief," Ralf Weichers, VDMA's chief economist, said in the report.