Germany's industrial orders marked robust recovery in December that exceeded forecast, reflecting a rebound in foreign demand.
Factory orders grew 1.7 percent month-on-month, after falling a revised 4.9 percent in November, the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology said Monday. The growth rate exceeded the 1 percent growth forecast.
The weakness in domestic demand continued in December, which was down 1.4 percent. Meanwhile, foreign orders logged a monthly growth of 4.3 percent, reversing November's 7.8 percent fall. Orders from euro area plunged 6.8 percent.
Within overall orders, bookings for intermediate goods remained unchanged in December, while that for capital goods grew 2.8 percent. Demand for consumer goods moved up 1.9 percent, rebounding from 1.7 percent drop a month ago.
Industrial orders on a working-day adjusted basis remained flat annually compared to a 4.3 percent drop in November and in contrast to a 0.4 percent decline forecast by economists. Likewise, industrial orders stayed flat from a year ago on an unadjusted basis.
In the fourth quarter, factory orders fell 1.4 percent from the previous quarter.
The latest Purchasing Managers' survey revealed that Germany's private sector output expanded in January at the fastest pace since June 2011. Underpinned by expansion in Germany and France, the Eurozone economy stabilized in January.
Another survey carried out by the market research group GfK indicated an improvement in sentiment among German consumers for February. Moreover, German unemployment is currently at a two-decade low. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 34,000 to 2.85 million in January.
But Bundesbank sees a near zero percent growth in the first quarter of 2012, after the economy came to a standstill in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Elsewhere, results of a survey by the think tank Sentix showed an improvement in Eurozone investor confidence for the second straight month. The confidence index rose sharply to -11.1 in February from -21.1 in January.
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