German exports in February totaled 59.8 billion euros (77.3 billion US dollars), down 2.8 percent compared with January, official data showed Friday.

The exports in February witnessed a hike of 6 percent compared with the same period last year, the Federal Statistics Office said.

The German trade surplus rose from 13.3 billion euros (17.29 billion dollars) in January to 13.5 billion euros (17.3 billion dollars) in February, it said.

Experts estimated that German export growth for 2005 will slow to some 6 percent from 10.4 percent in 2004.

German exports reached 731 billion euros (950.3 billion dollars) in 2004, making a 10 percent increase over the year before and enabled the country to be the world's exporter champion for the second time in two years.

Source: Xinhua