German factory orders rise on a surge

Berlin - German industrial orders rose for the fourth-consecutive month in February on a surge in demand from the eurozone, data released Friday showed.

Factory orders in Europe's biggest economy grew by a more-than-forecast 0.6% in February after increasing by 0.1% in January, the Federal Statistics Office said.

"The figures point to the upswing clearly underway in industry," said Commerzbank economist Ralph Solveen.

Analysts had expected a more modest gain of 0.2%. Helping to drive the orders was a 5.9% jump in demand from the 18-member eurozone and 1.2% rise in domestic orders.

This followed a 9.4% contraction in eurozone orders in January. Domestic orders climbed by 2% in January.

The Ministry of Economics said the data reflected an above-average number of bulk orders during February. Foreign orders increased by 0.2% after demand from nations outside the eurozone slumped by 3.1% almost cancelling out the 3.9% rise in January.

"The decrease of orders from non eurozone countries indicates that the impact from emerging market woes at the beginning of the year on the real economy could be bigger than buoyant confidence indicators made us believe," said ING Bank economist Carsten Brzeski.