BERLIN, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Exports from Germany amounted to a total of 113.9 billion euros (127.9 billion U.S. dollars) in May, marking an increase of 4.5 percent compared to the same period last year, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday.
Imports into Germany rose by 4.9 percent to 93.4 billion euros in May, said Destatis. With 20.6 billion euros, Germany's foreign trade surplus was slightly higher than in May last year, when the surplus amounted to 20.0 billion euros.
"Foreign trade is picking up again at the beginning of summer," said Holger Bingmann, president of the German Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), here on Monday.
However, Bingmann warned that "the good result was overshadowed by the continuing negative trend in incoming orders. It is to be expected that the economic slowdown will pick up speed."
With 66.1 billion euros worth of goods, most of the German exports in May 2019 went into other member states of the European Union (EU).
Exports from Germany to countries outside EU, however, saw a particular strong increase of over 10 percent in May.
According to Ralph Solveen, economic expert at the German Commerzbank, it would be questionable whether the increasing export numbers would signal "the end of the downward trend" especially in Germany's export-oriented industry.
The "weak order intake" of Germany's industry would also lead to an expected decline in production in the coming months, especially since foreign demand would be "faltering", Solveen added.
Destatis announced last week that new orders in Germany's industrial sector declined by 2.2 percent in May.
The increase in exports in May was "more like a countermovement to the very poor value of the previous month," Solveen said.
Despite Monday's positive numbers, Germany's second largest bank Commerzbank is still expecting the economy to have declined in the second quarter, Solveen noted.