German industrial orders rise less than expected in February

German industrial orders rose in February but less than expected, showing that the weakness in demand in the manufacturing sector continues.

New orders increased by 0.2% on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said on Friday.

A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a rise of 0.8%.

After a revision of the provisional data, there was an 11.4% decrease in January on the month, instead of a 11.3% decline.

The downturn in Germany's manufacturing sector, which accounts for about a fifth of the country's economy, continued in March, the manufacturing

Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) showed.

(Reporting by Maria Martinez, Amir Orusov and Mateusz Dobrzyniewski Editing by Miranda Murray)