FRANKFURT, Oct 9: Small and medium-sized companies in Germany, which form the main backbone of Europe’s top economy, remain confident despite the crisis and are planning to expand abroad, a new study found on Tuesday.

The KfW Bank, a state-owned development bank, and the credit information group Creditreform found in a survey of 3,600 SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) that 64 per cent of exporting companies were planning to expand their exports by 2015.

And seven per cent of all companies were planning to launch export activities for the first time.—AFP