German exports increased at a much faster pace than expected in May and imports gained even more strongly, offering hope to a struggling euro zone periphery that relies on demand from Germany, Europes industrial motor.

Exports increased by a seasonally adjusted 3.9 per cent while imports jumped by 6.3 per cent, according to federal statistics office data.

Economists had expected a consensus rise of around 0.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.

The strong performance followed surprisingly poor figures in April, when exports declined by 1.7 per cent.

Still, the data rekindled hopes that Germany could withstand a marked slowdown elsewhere in Europe.

“German exports are still proving remarkably robust,” Ulrike Rondorf at Commerzbank said. “The figures available so far suggest that the economy grew in the second quarter, although the upswing in Germany has noticeably lost momentum amid the euro zone crisis.”

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012