German industrial orders rise in Dec

Incoming orders to German industry rose for the second month in a row in December, official figures published Friday showed, after the economy was buffeted by supply bottlenecks in 2021.

The indicator, which gives a foretaste of industrial production, climbed by 2.8 per cent in December over the previous month, having risen by 3.6 per cent in November, according to revised figures from the federal statistics agency Destatis.

Over the whole of 2021, orders were 17.8 per cent higher than in 2020, when the economy was laid low by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2021 figure was also 9.3 per cent higher than the pre-crisis year 2019, but the strong bounceback in demand has so far been trailed by production as bottlenecks have hampered industry.