German Q3 exports increase by 3.6 pct

German exports in the third quarter increased by 3.6 percent driven by demands from outside the European Union (EU), official data showed on Tuesday. German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said in a statement that total exports in the third quarter of 2012 reached 275.4 billion euros (360 billion U.S. dollars). Most of the contribution came from exports to non-EU markets, whose purchase from Germany jumped by 3.3 percent. Their total share amounted to 44.4 percent of the total exports in the third quarter. Outside the EU, exports to the United States grew the most in the third quarter, by 25.7 percent to 23.6 billion euros. Exports to South Korea and Japan increased strongly by 15.8 percent and 12.9 percent respectively. Exports to Russia increased by 7.6 percent to 10.2 billion euros, while exports to China rose by 0.9 percent, to 16.6 billion euros. German imports, at the same time, saw a year-on-year decline of 0.4 percent in the third quarter. Germany received shipment of goods worth 225.3 billion euros, among which, 124.9 billion euros came from the EU, unchanged from the same period of last year. Imports from the eurozone increased by 0.9 percent, those from the non-eurozone countries fell by 1.9 percent.