WASHINGTON, June 25 - New orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods continued to rise in May from the previous month, a fresh sign of a pickup in economic activity, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Tuesday.Orders for durable goods increased 8 billion U.S. dollars, or 3.6 percent, to 231 billion dollars last month, mainly due to a strong growth of transportation equipment orders, which jumped 10.2 percent from the prior month.
The durable items are expected to last at least three years. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, new orders for manufactured durable goods increased 0.7 percent last month.
The manufacturing sector in the world's largest economy was hit hard by the worst recession since the Great Depression. For all of 2009, durable goods orders plunged by 20.2 percent, the largest drop on records that go back to 1992. It was a bright spot that helped drive growth during the early stages of the U.S. economic recovery.
