LONDON (Dow Jones)--Euro-zone industrial new orders posted their strongest monthly gain for 19 months in June in a fresh sign that the 16-nation currency block's recession-hit economy is on the road to recovery, but orders remained severely depressed compared with last year, official data showed Monday. New orders increased 3.1% in June, the strongest month-on-month rise since November 2007, but were 25.1% lower than in June last year, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said. That compares with May's downwardly revised declines of 0.5% on the month and 30.3% on the year. Economists were expecting a 3.0% increase in orders compared with May and a 26.9% drop compared with June last year, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey last week. May's data were revised from declines of 0.2% on the month and 30.1% on the year recorded in July. The figures are likely to support the view that the euro zone's most severe economic slump since World War II is bottoming out and the currency block could grow on a quarterly basis for the first time in more than a year in the third quarter. Surveys released Friday suggested euro-zone private-sector output stabilized in August after more than a year of declines, with support from a stronger-than-expected recovery by France and Germany. Some economists revised up their growth forecasts on the figures which have also fueled debate about when the European Central Bank might increase its interest rates from their record low of 1.0%. The latest Eurostat figures showed new orders, excluding the usually volatile heavy transport equipment category, which includes ships, trains and aircraft, rose 1.9% in June, the strongest monthly gain since January last year. That helped reduce the year-on-year drop in that category to 26.7% in June from 30.3% in May. The breakdown of the figures showed new orders for capital goods rose 5.6% in June, the strongest monthly gain for two years, while non-durable consumer goods orders rose 3.1%, the strongest rise since March 2007. But on the downside, orders for durable consumer goods slumped 3.5% and orders for intermediate goods fell 0.9%. Compared with June last year, orders for non-durable consumer goods rose 0.3%, compared with a 7.8% fall in May. The year-on-year drop in all the other categories moderated from May but remained very weak, from a 22.2% drop in orders for durable consumer goods to a 31.1% slump in orders for intermediate goods.

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