Largely on the back of domestic demand, industrial orders in Germany rose in July, while the eurozone crisis crimped demand outside Germany, new data showed on Thursday.
The economy ministry said that industrial orders rose by 0.5% in July from June, partially making up for the 1.6% drop seen the previous month.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones had been penciling in a much more modest increase of 0.2% last month.
The increase was largely due to a boost in domestic orders, which were up 1% month-on-month, while orders from outside Germany were more or less unchanged, rising by just 0.1%, the ministry explained.
By sector, orders for consumer goods fell by 1.2%, while orders of semi-finished goods and capital goods both increased by 0.5%, the data showed.
Earlier, the industry federation for the key machine-tool sector said it expected its own output to rise by about 2% both this year and next year, despite slowing growth in Europe's top economy.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
