Germany's factory orders expanded at the fastest pace in nine months in March on foreign demand, figures from Destatis revealed Monday.
New orders in manufacturing climbed 1.9 percent on a monthly basis in March, reversing a revised 0.8 percent fall in February. The increase was the biggest since June 2015.
Economists had forecast a 0.7 percent rise after February's initially estimated decline of 1.2 percent.
The recovery in orders was driven by a 4.3 percent increase in foreign orders. Partially offsetting the growth, domestic orders decreased 1.2 percent.
Carsten Brzeski, an ING Bank NV economist, said today's numbers give some hope that the stagnation since last summer is gradually fading away.
Interestingly, this pick-up can mainly be attributed to foreign orders, suggesting that the cooling of activity might not be as severe as it seemed some months ago, he noted.
Demand from the euro area rose 1.1 percent and new orders from other countries increased 6.2 percent.
Bookings of intermediate goods fell 1.2 percent, while orders for capital goods showed an increase of 4 percent. Demand for consumer goods registered a 1.6 percent rise.
On a yearly basis, growth in factory orders improved unexpectedly to 1.7 percent from 0.7 percent in February. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent increase.
The economy ministry said business expectations have recently brightened, so that a moderate upswing is expected to continue.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com