BERLIN, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- German manufacturing orders rose sharply in August, official figures released on Friday by the Federal Statistical Office showed.
Seasonally-adjusted manufacturing orders in August were 3.6 percent higher than during the previous month, marking the fastest growth recorded by the Wiesbaden-based government statisticians in 2017 so far.
Demand in Germany remained strong for manufacturing goods, with orders growing by 2.6 percent. Furthermore, orders outside of the Eurozone common currency area surged by 7.7 percent, suggesting that the bloc was showing competitive resilience in the face of a strengthening Euro.
While total international manufacturing orders rose by 4.3 percent, orders from the Eurozone declined by one percent.
Broken down by manufacturing sectors, producers of intermediary goods saw monthly order rise by 6.7 percent, compared to 1.6 percent growth for capital goods and 4.8 percent growth for consumer goods.
Dr. Thiess Petersen, economics expert at the think tank of Bertelsmann Foundation, told Xinhua that August's growth in manufacturing orders exceeded expectations held at the start of the year.
According to Petersen, Friday's official figures suggested that German economic momentum was benefiting from "stable domestic demand", as well as a "positive development of global growth." Both of these factors contributed to low unemployment and a related rise in household consumption in Germany.
The Bertelsmann Economics expert warned, however, that German businesses were nearing the "limits of their productive capabilities".
Petersen said that Germany's inflation rate was likely to rise to "1.7 or 1.8 percent" in 2017 from only 0.5 percent in the past two years, with the economy increasingly at risk of "running too hot".
