German manufacturing orders beat expectations in October

German manufacturing orders rose a lot more than expected in October, according to figures released by Destatis.

German industrial orders were up 4.9% on the month, which was well ahead of the 0.6% increase economists had been expecting. Meanwhile, September’s figure was revised down to show a 0.3% drop.

Domestic orders advanced by 6.3% and foreign orders were 3.9% higher than the previous month, with news orders from the euro area unchanged and new orders from other countries up 6.3% compared to September.

On the year, orders were up 6.3%.

Orders for investment goods were up 7.2%, with demand for basic goods up 1.8% and consumer goods up 0.5%. Domestic demand rose 6.3% and export orders rose 3.9%.

Pantheon Macroeconomics said: “This is an astonishing headline, which suggests that German manufacturing is set to surge in the fourth quarter. We suspect the month-to-month headline will be revised down, though. If not, the mean-reversion next month likely will be grim.”