Orders placed with companies in the German manufacturing sector rose sharply in May on the back of an unusually large number of big-ticket export orders, official data showed on July 6. Manufacturing orders jumped by 3.2% in May from the figure for April, after declining by 1.6% the previous month.
Consumer goods shot up by 4% on a monthly basis in May. Orders for capital goods were up by 3.8% and orders for semi-finished goods rose by 2.4%.
Britain's manufactured output rose by 0.4% in May from April, official data showed on July 6. On a 12-month basis, manufactured output climbed 1% in May, the Office for National Statistics said.
"There was a significant increase in the transport equipment industries, where output rose by 1.3%" in May, the ONS said. "There were no significant decreases in output during May. Within transport equipment, output from the ship building industry increased by 13.7% following the completion of several large contracts."
The overall manufacturing index is now running at 103.1, the highest since August 2001 when it was at 103.6. Manufactured output accounts for 14.7% of the British economy.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
