FRANKFURT: German industrial orders rose unexpectedly strongly in February, propelled by resurgent demand -- both at home and abroad -- for German-made goods, data showed on Friday.
Industrial orders jumped by 2.3 percent in February compared with January, making up for the 1.6-percent drop seen the previous month, the economy ministry said in a statement.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had been pencilling in a more modest gain of 1.2 percent for February.
"Growth in domestic orders accelerated noticeably by 2.2 percent and orders from overseas offset the previous month's drop with an increase of 2.3 percent," the ministry said.
The upward momentum was fuelled primarily by a sharp increase of 3.5 percent in orders for capital goods. Orders for semi-finished goods rose by 0.9 percent while orders for consumer goods edged up by 0.1 percent.
Using a two-month comparison to iron out short-term fluctuations, the ministry calculated that orders in January and February combined inched 0.1 percent higher compared with the same period a year earlier.
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