BERLIN — Factory orders in Germany surged in February, posting their third successive increase in another promising sign for Europe's biggest economy, official figures showed Wednesday.
Orders were up 4.8% compared with January, the biggest rise since mid-2021, the Economy Ministry said. That followed gains of 1.9% in December and 0.5% in January, and was supported primarily by rises in demand from Germany itself and other countries in the 20-nation eurozone.
The figures came on top of data Tuesday that showed exports rising 4% on the month in February, while imports were up 4.6%.
Last week, a closely watched monthly survey of managers by the Ifo institute showed German business confidence rising for the fifth consecutive month to its highest since February 2022, the month Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine — though it remained some way short of that pre-war level.
Germany's economy has generally held up well, despite pressure from high inflation and fears last year of an energy crunch as Russia reduced and then cut off its gas supplies to Germany.
The economy shrank by 0.4% in last year’s fourth quarter, though it managed full-year growth of 1.8%.
On Wednesday, a group of four leading German economic research institutes followed other forecasters in raising their outlook for this year. They predicted that gross domestic product will increase by 0.3%, compared with their forecast last fall that it would shrink by 0.4%.
“The economic setback in the winter half-year … is likely to have been less severe than feared in the fall," said Timo Wollmershäuser, the head of Forecasts at Ifo. "The main reason for this is a smaller loss of purchasing power as a result of a significant drop in energy prices.”
However, the institutes forecast that Germany's inflation rate will fall only slowly, averaging 6% this year after last year's 6.9%.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
