German exports and imports climbed to a record high simultaneously in March, as the Europe's largest economy continuously gained strength from recovering world economy, official data showed Monday.
The Wiesbaden-based Federal Statistics Office said that German exports totaled 98.3 billion euros (142 billion U.S. dollars) in March and imports 79.4 billion euros. Both of them reached the highest monthly level since the country first collected such data in 1950.
Compared with February, seasonally-adjusted exports advanced 7. 3 percent and imports 3.1 percent. Economists had expected a 1.1- percent increase of exports, according to a survey of Bloomberg News survey.
In unadjusted terms, exports surged 15.8 percent year-on-year while imports by 16.9 percent, the office said.
Data showed that Germany's unadjusted trade surplus widened to 18.9 billion euros in March, compared with 11.9 billion euros last month. In March 2010, the surplus amounted to 17.0 billion euros.
German economy posted a strong recovery since spring of 2010, mostly powered by surging foreign orders and steady domestic growth. Its unemployment has reached the lowest level of nearly two decades, with only less than 3 million people registered as jobless.
The German government revised in April its expectation on economic growth from 2.3 percent to 2.6 percent. The country registered a record 3.6 percent growth in 2010.
Economists believed that Germany is set to register another solid growth in the first quarter of this year. However, some observers warned that the economy would take down a gear in the rest of the year as it faced mounting inflation pressure and a strong euro currency.
Earlier data showed that German retail sales and manufacturing orders had plunged unexpectedly in March.