According to preliminary data, German exports rose by 0.5 percent during November to 88 billion euros ($115.2 billion), the highest level since October 2008. The figure represents a jump of 21.7 percent on the year, Germany’s Federal Statistics Office said.

“Exports in November have practically reached the same level as before the crisis hit in fall 2008,” Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said.

November imports rose by a strong 4.1 percent to 75.1 billion euros on the month — a staggering 33.1 percent over the same period a year earlier and the highest total level since the first records in 1950, the agency said.

“The strong increase of imports shows that Germany’s domestic economy is further gaining strength and dynamics,” Bruederle said in a statement.

The bulk of Germany’s November exports, some 55 percent, or 52.3 billion euros, went to its 26 fellow European Union members. Almost two thirds of its imports, or €47.2 billion, originated from there, the agency said.

Anton Boerner, the head of the country’s BGA exporters association, said Germany is once again proving to be the European Union’s economic motor.

“It seemed barely possible, but by the end of the year we will have made up for 90 percent of the crisis’ losses,” he said in a statement.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and the world’s No. 2 exporter after China, has made an impressive comeback after the financial crisis plunged the country into its deepest postwar recession, with its output shrinking by 4.7 percent last year.

The country’s swift recovery has made it a standout among the 17 countries that use the common currency, the euro, where smaller economies such as Ireland, Greece and Portugal are struggling with huge debts and deep recessions.

Germany’s central bank has forecast the economy will grow by 3.6 percent in 2010 and 2 percent this year. The number of jobless, meanwhile, has fallen to about 3 million.

Still, retail sales in November dipped 2.4 percent, though they are still up on the year. Retail sales for the whole of 2010 are expected to be up by about 1.3 to 1.6 percent on the year after adjusting for inflation, it said.