Germany saw a jump in industrial orders in January, before the impact of the novel coronavirus began to hit the world economy, data released on Friday showed.
After a slow end to 2019, orders rose 5.5 per cent month-on-month in January, federal statistics office Destatis said in seasonally-adjusted figures.
The figure was well above predictions made by analysts, who were expecting an increase of 1.2 percent after a 2.1 decline in December.
Industrial orders are a key indicator of how well the economy is doing, pointing to how much work manufacturers will have in the coming months.
The increase was partly down to large orders in the mechanical engineering and aerospace sectors, Destatis said.
But even without the more volatile major deals, orders were up 2.3 percent compared with December, indicating a "good general orders situation in many sectors of the economy".
While domestic orders fell slightly, there was a double-digit boost to foreign demand, including a 15.1-percent bound in orders from Germany's eurozone neighbours.
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