German trade picked up at a faster-than-expected pace in September, the National Statistics Office (Destatis) reported Monday.

Monthly exports increased by 2.6 percent compared to August, with German companies delivering goods worth 105.9 billion euros ($114 billion). The majority of these goods went to other European Union nations, representing a 7.7-percent rise in items shipped to that region.

But even exports to overseas countries rose slightly, despite sluggish trade with some of the bigger emerging economies.

Promising full-year projection

Imports picked up 3.6 percent in September after slumping 3.2 percent in August, Destatis said.

"Imports are currently growing faster than exports, and this has a lot to do with the lull in Brazil and Russia," HSBC Trinkaus economist Rainer Sartorius commented.

In the nine months to the end of September, German exports grew by 7.0 percent year-on-ear to total almost 896 billion euros.

The BGA trade organization said it expected exports to surge by up to 6.0 percent for the whole of 2015.

hg/pad (Reuters, AFP, dpa)