Industrial orders in Germany rose for the second month in a row in March, official data showed Monday, but not enough to cancel out a sharp dip early this year.

Industrial companies in Europe's biggest economy booked a 1.0-percent increase in new business in March, the federal statistics office Destatis calculated.

That was higher than the 0.4 percent forecast by analysts surveyed by data company Factset. 

But it was slower than the increase of 3.5 percent recorded in February.

Industrial orders are closely watched as an indicator of an economy's future performance.

A breakdown of the data showed that domestic orders fell by 3.8 percent, while foreign  orders rose rose by 4.8 percent, with industrial orders from Germany's eurozone neighbours jumping by 6.8 percent. 

Nevertheless, taking the first quarter as a whole, industrial orders declined by 1.0 percent from the figure for the preceding three months. 

"The industrial sector is in a very favourable economic situation. That can also be seen in the much more positive business confidence indicators," the economy ministry said in a separate statement.

Analysts pointed out that the increase in industrial orders was largely driven by big-ticket items such as aircraft and ships, which often vary widely from month to month. 

"Overall, the new orders data in March turned out to be good. But the hard indicators continue to lag behind the euphoric business situation seen in the surveys," said Stefan Kipar of BayernLB bank.

Nevertheless, "the still-high level of orders in March inspires hopes that manufacturing will continue ramping up production in the second quarter," said economist Ralph Solveen of Commerzbank.

Official data on German gross domestic product growth in the first quarter will be released on Friday.

Source: AFP