Germany's exports increased in November 2020 by 2.2 percent compared to the previous month to 111.7 billion euros (136.6 billion U.S. dollars), the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
In November, the country's exports continued to recover from the slump caused by the COVID-19 crisis but were still down 4.7 percent compared to February 2020, the month before restrictions began in Germany.
German exports to China continued to increase and were already 14.3 percent above last year's level, reaching 9.3 billion euros in November, according to Destatis.
An important reason for this was China's "fast economic recovery" and its "faster containment of the coronavirus," Christian Grimme of the Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys at the ifo Institute told Xinhua on Friday.
Germany's exports to the United States, on the other hand, dropped by 3.1 percent in November year-on-year to 9.6 billion euros, while exports to other European Union (EU) countries declined by 1.7 percent, according to Destatis.
Exports to Britain increased by 6.6 percent in November, while German imports from Britain dropped by 9.7 percent year-on-year, according to Destatis. At the turn of the year, Britain withdrew from the EU after a free trade agreement that contained neither tariffs nor quotas was concluded at the last minute.
Germany's total imports in November declined only slightly compared to the previous year as goods worth 94.6 billion euros were imported to the country, Destatis said. China was Germany's largest source of imports, with a 5.4 percent increase in volume year-on-year.
"German imports have almost returned to their pre-crisis level, but here the slump was much less pronounced than for German exports in spring 2020," said Grimme.