EU new orders rose

Eurostat – an European statistics agency – announced new orders of EU zone in December last year that rose 9.5% from a year earlier and 0.8% from a month earlier, compared to Economists surveyed last week by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 0.5% drop on the month and 7.0% annual gain in December. This record was claimed the highest growth rate since April 2008. France – the second biggest economy in EU – showed a very good pace as surged 17.1% on the month in December, leaving them 20.4% stronger on the year, while Germany new orders slipped 1.8% month-on-month, but were 6.1% higher on an annual basis. For 2009 as a whole, euro-zone industrial new orders plunged a record 22.6% from the previous year after a 5.5% drop in 2008, Eurostat said.