WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- New orders for U.S. durable goods surged in July as business investment has begun to recover, the U.S. government said Wednesday.

New orders for manufactured durable goods increased 11.2 percent to 230.7 billion U.S. dollars in July, following an increase of 7.7 percent in the previous month, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The so-called core capital goods orders, which exclude defense and aircraft goods and are seen as a barometer of business investment, rose 1.9 percent last month as investment spending has begun to recover.

"Driving the rebound in core capital goods orders has been goods that facilitate life in a socially distant world," Sarah House and Tim Quinlan, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote Wednesday in a note.

"Computers and communications orders have surpassed their February levels, while orders for machinery and metals continue to dig out from the hole left by shutdowns and more muted profit outlooks," they noted.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, a major accounting firm, said that the U.S. economy is poised for a rebound in the third quarter after a sharp contraction in the first half of the year.

"Today's data suggest that real GDP is poised to rise at close to a 30% annualized pace in the third quarter after contracting 33% in the second quarter. Much of that growth will depend upon the ability to sustain the pace of the recovery in August and September," Swonk wrote Wednesday in an analysis.

"The question is whether we can keep those gains going in the fourth quarter; that depends on the course of the virus. The confidence that CEOs have in managing through another major outbreak by cutting jobs and investments underscores the fragility of the gains," she wrote.

Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, warned on Wednesday that the resurgence of COVID-19 infections could drag the U.S. economy into a double-dip recession.

"An important risk to that outlook is thinking about what happens as we come into the fall, whether we see any resurgence in the virus that would cause an additional pullback in the economy," George told CNBC in an interview.