German industrial orders rise unexpectedly

German industrial orders beat forecasts in November, unexpectedly rising on the back of strong demand from eurozone countries, official data showed Thursday.

Demand was 2.3 percent higher than in October, federal statistics agency Destatis said.

The data trumped analysts' expectations of a 1.4 percent slump, according to a poll by FactSet. Orders were also 4.0 percent above those in February 2020, the month before curbs were imposed to halt transmission of the coronavirus. The data for November marks the seventh month of rises in orders, albeit slightly below the growth of 3.3 percent in October, as Germany continued to recover from the economic slump of the first wave of the pandemic.

Industrial orders are widely tracked as a key indicator of future activity, especially in manufacturing powerhouse Germany. Europe's biggest economy shuttered restaurants, leisure and sporting facilities in November to curb a second wave of the virus. But factories and manufacturing businesses stayed open.

As a result,  "new orders continued their recovery process in November," the economy ministry said in a statement. Orders from inside Germany rose 1.6 percent month-on-month, while those from the euro area jumped 6.1 percent, and other countries by 0.9 percent. "German industry has remained almost unharmed by the November lockdown," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said. But he warned that with upcoming  "stricter lockdowns in many main trading partner countries, setbacks for industry seem hard to avoid.