Berlin, Feb 23 (IANS): German exports to countries outside the European Union (EU) increased by 10.5 per cent in January year-on-year to 56.3 billion euros ($63 billion), according to provisional data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

Compared to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels, German exports to the non-EU countries were even 19.3 per cent higher than in February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed because of the pandemic in Germany, Xinhua news agency quoted Destatis as saying.

The US remained the largest market for German exports, as goods worth 9.9 billion euros were exported to the country in January, which increased by 17.6 per cent compared to January 2021.

German exports to China rose by 7.2 per cent year-on-year to 8.1 billion euros, according to Destatis, and exports to the UK rose 23.4 per cent year-on-year to 5.3 billion euros.

Meanwhile, the ifo Institute for Economic Research said on Tuesday that sentiment in the German economy "improved appreciably" as the ifo Business Climate Index rose from 96.0 points in January to 98.9 points in February.

German companies were "more satisfied with their current business", while expectations even improved significantly, according to the monthly survey of around 9,000 companies from all economic sectors.