German exports rise 2% in September

German exports rose 2% in September from the previous month to 141.1 billion euros, official data from statistics agency Destatis showed Monday.

The increase followed two months of declines and was above the 0.5% rise forecast by analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Destatis said the provisional data was lifted by a 3.5% increase in shipments to other European Union countries. Exports to China fell by more than 5%, while shipments to the United States, the biggest destination for German goods, slipped 0.5%.

Imports rose 4.2% in September from the previous month to 125.5 billion euros. Germany's trade surplus narrowed to 15.6 billion euros.