Germany's manufacturing orders grew for a seventh straight month in November, defying expectations for a decline, suggesting that manufacturing may have offset the slump in the service sector due to the second lockdown to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
Factory orders rose 2.3 percent month-on-month in November, figures from the Federal Statistical Office/Destatis showed Thursday. while economists had forecast a 1.2 percent fall.
The growth for October was revised to 3.3 percent from 2.9 percent. Orders have grown every month since May.
Excluding major orders, real new orders in manufacturing rose 1.6 percent from the previous month.
Domestic orders increased 1.6 percent and foreign demand grew 2.9 percent.
Demand for intermediate goods grew 4.9 percent and orders for capital goods rose 1.1 percent. Consumer goods orders increased 0.5 percent.
On a year-on-year basis, factory orders grew 6.3 percent in November after a 2.3 percent increase in the previous month.
The latest increase in orders is "undoubtedly good news" for the German manufacturing sector and for production, Commerzbank said, which expects production to increase in the coming months given the positive trend in orders.
"All this is unlikely to prevent real GDP from shrinking in Q4 due to the new restrictions imposed to contain the corona pandemic," Commerzbank analyst Marco Wagner said.
"However, the very positive development in manufacturing should keep this decline in check."
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