Germany saw a better-than-expected international trade performance during May 2017, resulting in an increase of its national trade surplus.

Data from the country's Federal Statistics Office saw seasonally adjusted exports rise by 1.4 per cent for the month, marking a fifth consecutive monthly increase, while imports rose 1.2 per cent.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected exports to increase by 0.3 per cent and imports to edge up by 0.5 per cent, meaning the May performance was better than expected. This was driven by particularly strong demand for German goods from countries outside the EU.

As such, Germany's seasonally adjusted trade surplus ticked upwards to €20.3 billion, from a revised €19.7 billion in April.

VP Bank economist Thomas Gitzel said: "The global economy is improving, which has a positive impact on the German export economy."

The International Monetary Fund recently raised its 2017 growth forecast for the German economy to 1.8 per cent in real terms, higher than its April forecast of 1.6 per cent.