German factory orders climbed in July for the third month in a row, official data showed Friday, the latest sign that the struggling industrial sector of Europe's biggest economy is gradually recovering.
Industrial orders, an indicator of future business activity, rose 2.5 percent from a month earlier, statistics office Destatis said.
That beat expectations of just a 0.5 percent rise in a poll of analysts by the financial data platform FactSet.
Destatis also revised up the June reading to an increase of 3.7 percent from its initial 3.1 percent.
"These numbers show that the economic trough seems, for now, to have been overcome," LBBW bank analyst Jens-Oliver Niklasch said.
