A good demand for German products in the US and China has resulted in a surprisingly high export rate in March. But economic growth in the first quarter remained miniscule.
German exports rose by 0.9% in March over the previous month, according to figures released on Tuesday by Germany’s federal statistics office, Destatis.
The rate of increase, which resulted in a 1.2% rise in comparison with last year, was unexpected, with economists consulted by Reuters news agency predicting export growth of just 0.4%.
What else did Destatis say?
The export rise to €134.1 billion ($1.44 billion) was driven largely by demand from the US and China.
Exports to the US grew by 3.6% and those to China by 3.7%. Those rises were counterbalanced by a fall of 3.8% in exports to Britain.
Germany’s exports to its EU neighbors grew by 0.5%, totaling €73.3 billion.
Imports also rose for the third month in a row, increasing by 0.3% on February to €111.9 billion, though this was 3% down on the same period last year. The foreign trade surplus was around €22 billion.
Overall, Germany’s economy has seen slight growth of 0.2% in the first quarter.
In March, several German economic institutes cut their 2024 growth forecast for Germany to 0.1%.
Source: Dw
