German factory orders rise for third month in October, led by capital goods
Strong domestic demand and from outside the single currency bloc boosted German factory orders last month.
Total manufacturing orders grew for a third consecutive month in October, recording an increase of 0.5%, according to the Ministry of Finance.
According to consensus, orders were expected to be down by 0.2%.
September's reading was also revised higher, from a preliminary print of 1.0% to up by 1.2%.
Both domestic and foreign orders were higher, rising by 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively, in comparison to September.
Orders from the euro area declined by 1.2% while those from overseas jumped by 1.6%.
By sub-sectors, production of intermediate goods fell by 0.4%, while those of capital goods grew by 0.9%.
Consumer goods orders increased by 0.6%.
Commenting on Wednesday's data, Iaroslav Shelepko and Tomasz Wieladek at Barclays Research said: "The combination of foreign trade growth fueled by the global economic recovery and improving domestic demand is likely to help manufacturing production to remain around the highest levels on record, further supporting sustainable growth so far unaffected by political uncertainty over the ruling coalition formation. Overall, we see October Factory orders as consistent with our real GDP growth forecast of 0.6% in Q4 2017, with risks clearly skewed to the upside."