Compared to February, the month before COVID-19 restrictions were imposed in Germany, exports were still down 9.9 percent, according to preliminary results published by Destatis.
"As in previous months, German exports continued to recover from the slumps in March and April," Christian Grimme, an economist at the ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys, told Xinhua on Thursday.
"However, the catching-up process has slowed down considerably since July," said Grimme, stressing that there was "continuing uncertainty about the further progress of the pandemic, so that global demand for German capital goods is likely to remain subdued."
Germany's exports to the United States, which were "hit particularly hard" by the coronavirus pandemic, dropped by 21.1 percent compared to the previous year, while its exports to the United Kingdom in August decreased by 7.3 percent, according to Destatis.
The upcoming withdrawal of the UK from the European Union has "already left clear traces in bilateral trade," said Anton Boerner, president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) in statement on Thursday.
Germany's exports to China were the least affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and only decreased by 1.1 percent compared to the previous year to 7.3 billion euros in August, according to Destatis.
Goods worth 9.4 billion euros were imported from China, "which means that the level of August 2019 was almost reached," Destatis noted. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars)
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