FRANKFURT, Sept 04 (AFP): German industrial orders, a key measure of demand for German-made goods both at home and abroad, jumped in July, suggesting the fallout from the Ukraine crisis remains limited for now, data showed on Thursday.
Factory orders were up 4.6 per cent in July compared with the level in June, the statistics office Destatis said in a statement.
In June, German factory orders had declined by 2.7 per cent.
The office said that orders growth was driven mainly by strong foreign demand, with export orders advancing by as much as 6.9 per cent, and domestic orders up 1.7 per cent.
A regional breakdown showed that orders from the eurozone climbed by 1.7 per cent and orders from outside the eurozone soared by 9.8 per cent.
The headline figure was overstated by a disproportionately large number of bulk orders, the economy ministry said in Berlin.
However, "after the uncertainty triggered by geopolitical developments and the economic soft patch in the second quarter, the strong rise in orders is an encouraging sign for industry," the ministry said in a statement.
Analysts said the data suggested that the feared fallout from the crisis in Ukraine was not proving quite so severe as expected.
"After a long series of negative surprises in data in recent weeks, the strong orders number is grounds for some optimism," said BayernLB economist Stefan Kipar.
"It suggests that day-to-day business in Germany has not suffered unduly under the Ukraine-Russia conflict."
But the data should not be over-interpreted, the expert cautioned.
