German Factory Orders Growth Strongest In 2 Years

(RTTNews) - German factory orders grew the most in two years in December, driven by the surge in large-scale orders, official data revealed Thursday.

Factory orders advanced unexpectedly by 7.8 percent from November, Destatis reported. This was the biggest growth since December 2023 and confounded expectations for a fall of 1.8 percent.

The statistical office revised up November's growth to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent. Excluding large-scale orders, new orders were only 0.9 percent higher than in the previous month in December, data showed.

In the fourth quarter, new orders were 9.5 percent higher than in the third quarter. When large-scale orders are excluded, new orders were up 2.5 percent.

Further, data showed that new orders for capital goods and intermediate goods rose 10.5 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, producers of consumer goods reported a 5.3 percent fall.

Both foreign and domestic orders expanded in December. Driven by a 9.7 percent rise in orders from outside the euro area, foreign orders grew 5.6 percent. At the same time, domestic orders increased 10.7 percent.

Real turnover in manufacturing was down 1.4 percent, reversing an increase of 2.9 percent. Compared to last year, turnover decreased 1.9 percent.