German factory orders surged in June, data released Thursday showed, powered by a sharp rise in foreign demand, according to dpa. The bigger-than-forecast 4.5-per-cent per cent increase announced by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology added to signs of a pickup in key hard data for Europe's biggest economy since it slumped into recession last year. Analysts had forecast a more modest 0.7-per-cent rise in June order books. The release of the latest factory order data followed the publication of a series of leading economic sentiment reports pointing to the recession bottoming out in recent months and raising the prospects of a recovery emerging by the end of the year. The sharp rise in June factory orders came in the wake of a 4.3- per-cent increase in May. Driving the rise in June was a solid 8.3-per-cent jump in foreign industrial orders, in particular from Germany's partners in the 16- member eurozone. Industrial orders from the eurozone soared by 13.2 per cent in June, the economics ministry said. However, underscoring the fragile state of the German economy, total domestic orders edged up by just 0.2 per cent in June.
