Official figures show that German industrial orders bounced back in January, as the country's central bank said 2011 would see further growth of Europe's biggest economy.
The economy ministry said industrial orders gained 2.9% from the previous month, according to provisional data, after a revised slump of 3.6% in December.
The December decline had initially been given as 3.4%. Economists had expected a smaller gain in January.
A breakdown of the figures showed that the strongest rise was in domestic demand, which gained 4.5% on the month, followed by euro zone orders that were 2.3% higher. Demand from countries outside the 17-nation euro area edged up by 1.3% following a plunge of 8.1% in December.
The economy ministry also publishes a two-month calculation designed to smooth out exceptional events, and said it showed a gain of 0.4% in December and January compared with October-November.
The German government currently expects 2011 growth of 2.3%, down from 3.6% last year - the strongest rate since Germany was reunified in late 1990.
Bundesbank president Axel Weber said today that the economy would expand further this year with support from an increase in private consumption.
Data released by the national statistics office meanwhile showed that trade between Germany and China posted a hefty jump last year, with Beijing becoming Berlin's third-largest trading partner and biggest overall provider of imports.
For overall trade, China moved up to behind France and the Netherlands, while in terms of exports, France was the biggest buyer of German goods, as it has been since 1961, followed by the United States and the Netherlands.
