Rising export demand boosted Germany's key mechanical engineering sector in November, the VDMA industry federation said.�The manufacture of machine tools is an important part of Germany's industrial and export performance.

Overall incoming orders were up by 7 percent in November compared with the level in same month in 2012, VDMA said in a statement. Export orders jumped by 12 percent while domestic orders were down by 1 percent.

However, taking a three-month comparison to iron out short-term fluctuations, overall orders were down by 3 percent in the period from September to November, with foreign orders falling by 7 percent, while domestic orders grew by 5 percent, VDMA calculated.