According to statistics office data, German exports to the United Kingdom might increase for the first time since 2015 if the increasing trend shown from January to August continues through 2022.

According to data made available to Reuters, German businesses exported items worth 48 billion euros ($47.37 billion) to Britain in the first eight months of the year, a rise of around 11.4% over the same time in 2021.

If this trend continues, 2022 would mark the first increase, after six consecutive years of shrinking exports, since the British referendum on whether to leave the European Union.

However, the DIHK chambers of industry and commerce said the positive development was no reason to celebrate, as Brexit and turmoil in the British pound were making business difficult.

“This is anything but a turnaround in German-British trade for the better,” DIHK’s head of foreign trade, Volker Treier, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Added to that is the latest confusion in the capital markets and economy overall triggered by stimulus and tax packages that were announced and then partly withdrawn, said Treier.

In the ranking of Germany’s most important trading partners, the United Kingdom took 10th place last year. In 2016, it was the fifth-most important trading partner.