Bilateral trade between India and Germany is expected to go up by 13 per cent during the current year (January-December) at Rs 26,000 crore (Rs 260 billion) over last year's Rs 23,000 crore (Rs 230 billion).

Given the shrinking turnover in Germany's retail trade and the world economy, crossing the five billion Euro mark (approximately Rs 26,000 crore) in Indo-German trade would be a big achievement, Indo-German Export Promotion Project said.

Exports from Germany to India during this year is, however, expected to dip by seven per cent to 2.3 billion Euro.

"This is mainly due to the steep increase in exchange rate of euro and India is likely to have a surplus in the Indo-German bilateral trade," it said.

Diversification of the exports basket, which included leather products, tea, textiles, carpets, handicrafts, home furnishings and marine food, led to an increase in Indian exports to Germany.

IGEP said though German imports had become dearer to Indian corporates due to depreciation of the rupee against the euro, exporters were benefiting from the currency movement.