German sees sharp rise industrial orders

German industrial firms recorded a sharp uptick in orders in August, official data showed on Thursday, outdoing analyst forecasts and reducing fears of an autumn slowdown in Europe's biggest economy.

Firms saw a 1.0-percent increase in their order books in August compared with July, correcting for price, seasonal and calendar effects, the federal statistics office Destatis said.

Analysts surveyed by Factset had predicted significantly weaker growth of 0.4 percent.

Demand for German products grew at home, with domestic orders up 2.6 percent in August versus the previous month.

But the picture was mixed abroad, with a strong increase in orders from fellow eurozone countries at 4.1 percent offset by a 2.8 percent slide in non-eurozone orders.

Overall, orders from outside Germany fell back by 0.2 percent. Ruling out large contracts, which can distort the figures, orders were up overall by 1.6 percent.