German factory orders rose more than expected in Jan.

German new factory orders rose more than expected in January, boosted by strong domestic demand.

Factory orders in the eurozone’s largest economy increased by 2.9 percent compared with the revised figure of 3.6 percent decline in orders in December last year, the federal ministry for economics and technology said on Tuesday. Markets had expected the orders to rise by 2.5 percent in January.

“Building on an already strong order book starts with an ordinary industrial orders increased in the New Year. Large fluctuations in the individual months, the orders remain so in the trend is clearly upward,” the ministry said.

Domestic orders grew by 4.5 percent, mainly due to a strong increase of 4.6 percent in orders for intermediate goods. Export orders rose 1.6 percent. While the orders for capital goods increased by 2 percent, orders for consumer goods were up 0.8 percent.