By Maria Martinez

Jan 8 (Reuters) - German industrial orders rose unexpectedly in November, though the increase was driven by large-scale orders, data showed on Thursday.     

Orders climbed 5.6% on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a decline of 1%.

"That is positive. However, the core measure of new orders has not yet broken upward out of the sideways range that has prevailed since 2024," said Joerg Kraemer, chief economist at Commerzbank.

Excluding large-scale orders, new orders were 0.7% higher in November compared to the previous month.

The jump in orders was driven by a 25.3% increase in orders for fabricated metal products and a 12.3% rise in orders for transport equipment such as aircraft, ships, trains and military vehicles.

"Overall, these are strong data, though major orders tend to mean-revert in the following month, creating downside risk for the headline (figure) in December," said Claus Vistesen, chief euro zone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed orders for September-November were 4.0% higher than in the previous three months.

Vistesen said factory orders are on track for a sizeable gain over the fourth quarter as a whole as the carry-over - the change over the quarter if new orders were stable in December - is a hefty 6.8%.

Orders in October increased by 1.6% on September, more than the provisional indication of a 1.5% rise, the statistics office said.

Foreign orders were up 4.9% on the month in November, with orders from the euro zone increasing by 8.2% and orders from outside the euro zone rising by 2.9%.

Domestic orders were up 6.5% on the month.

(Additional reporting by Cian Muenster and Bernadette Hogg in Gdansk, Editing by Friederike Heine and Edwina Gibbs)