German exports dipped by 1.8 percent in March compared with the previous month, the National Statistics Office (Destatis) reported Friday.

It not only marked the second monthly fall in a row, but it was also the biggest fall since May 2013. Economists polled by Reuters had penciled in a 1-percent rise for the month under review.

Destatis said German companies exported goods worth 96 billion euros ($132.8 billion) in March.

No need to worry?

A region-by-region analysis once again revealed vast differences, with shipments to non-eurozone EU nations surging by 10.4 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, while exports to non-EU countries - the biggest emerging economies included – dropped by 0.4 percent over the same period.

Imports dropped by 0.9 percent in March month-on-month, with Germany's trade surplus in March coming in at 14.8 billion euros in calendar-adjusted terms.

Despite the monthly setback, the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) said it remained upbeat about the rest of the year, expecting a 3-percent rise in exports throughout 2014.

hg / bf (dpa, Reuters)