German industrial orders rise more than expected in March

BERLIN - German industrial orders rose far more than expected in March, even when excluding highly volatile large-scale orders, marking the second month in a row of growth after plummeting at the start of the year, the statistics office said on Thursday.

Orders increased by 5.0% on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, accelerating from last month's upwardly revised 1.4% rise and beating expectations of a 1.0% increase.

New orders were 5.1% higher than in the previous month when large-scale orders are excluded, hitting the highest level recorded since February 2023.

The less-volatile three-month comparison showed that new orders were 4.1% lower, including large-scale orders, in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter.

Excluding large-scale orders, they rose 1.6%.

Commerzbank analyst Joerg Kraemer said the rise was a surprise in the first month of the war in Iran but warned that sentiment indicators showed that orders will likely react negatively to the current uncertainty and decline in the second quarter.

"The war in the Middle East is taking its toll, even if it were to end soon," said Kraemer.

(Reporting by Miranda Murray in Berlin and Tristan Veyet in Gdansk, editing by Thomas Seythal)

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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 1:26 AM.