Exports were up 3.6% compared with the previous month, according to preliminary data from statistics agency Destatis.

Analysts surveyed by financial data platform FactSet had predicted a rise of just 0.5%.

Exports to the EU were up 5.8%, while those to the US fell 7.5% and those to China were down 2.5%, due to US tariffs and fierce Chinese competition.

Industrial production meanwhile was down 0.3% month-on-month in February, defying FactSet analysts’ predictions of a 0.6% increase.

This decline was partly due to a 1.2% drop in the construction sector, which the economy ministry said was because of an “exceptionally severe cold spell” at the start of the month.

“The start of the year has been extremely sluggish for German industry,” said Elmar Voelker, an analyst at the bank LBBW, noting that “the fleeting hopes of a recovery that had emerged last autumn have evaporated for now”.

Industrial orders, an indicator of future business activity, rose just 0.9% in February compared with the previous month.

The economy ministry said recent surveys “point to a slowdown in industrial activity in the second quarter, given the heightened geopolitical uncertainty”.

“Future economic developments will therefore depend crucially on the course of the conflict in the Middle East,” it said.