Industrial new orders in the euro zone rose by 2.8 percent in December 2006 against the previous month, the European Union's statistics bureau Eurostat said on Thursday.

Compared to the same period of 2005, the year-on-year increase was 1.6 percent, much higher than a previous forecast which put the yearly and monthly growth in December at 0.7 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

Excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipment, industrial new orders rose by 0.6 percent in the euro zone month on month, while the increase over a year ago was 4.6 percent.

New orders for transport equipment registered the biggest rise in December, an increase of 4.5 percent against November. Manufacturing of basic metals and fabricated metal products grew by 2.3 percent, followed by textiles and textile products with an increase of 1.9 percent.

Among those euro-zone members whose data were available, Ireland recorded the highest monthly increase of 21 percent in December, while industrial new orders in Germany and France, the two biggest economies within the bloc sharing the same currency, decreased by 1.4 percent and 2.0 percent respectively.

In the 25-nation EU, industrial new orders expanded by 2.7 percent in December compared with the previous month. On an annual basis, the increase was 2.5 percent.

Source: Xinhua