GDANSK/BERLIN (Sept 4): German industrial orders rose more than expected in July, driven by sales of ships, railway rolling stock and aircraft.

Industrial orders rose by 2.5% from the previous month on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, the national statistics office said on Friday.

A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to an increase of 0.3%.

The increase was almost entirely attributable to growth in what the statistics office classifies as the manufacturing of other transport equipment, which includes aircraft, ships, trains and military vehicles. New orders rose by 126.4% in this sector month-on-month.

When excluding large-scale orders, new orders were 1.4% lower than in the previous month.

The less volatile three-month comparison showed that new orders from May to July were 2.9% higher than in the previous three months.

After revising provisional data, new orders in June increased by 3.7% compared with May, less than the 3.1% rise in the provisional figure.

Foreign orders dropped by 2.1% in July, while domestic orders rose by 9.1% on the month, the statistics office said.

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