Germany had record exports and imports in March 2015 according to Destatis, the federal statistics office, Friday.
Germany exported goods to the value of €107.5b ($120.6b) and imported goods to the value of €84.5b in March 2015. These were the highest monthly export and import values ever recorded, FinFacts reported.
Based on provisional data, the Destatis says that exports increased by 12.4% and imports by 7.1% in March 2015 year on year. After calendar and seasonal adjustment, exports rose by 1.2% and imports by 2.4% compared with February 2015.
The foreign trade balance showed a surplus of €23.0b in March 2015. In March 2014, the surplus amounted to €16.7b. In calendar and seasonally adjusted terms, the foreign trade balance recorded a surplus of €19.3b in March 2015.
Current Account Surplus
According to provisional results of the Deutsche Bundesbank, the current account of the balance of payments showed a surplus of €27.9b in March 2015, which takes into account the balances of trade in goods including supplementary trade items (+€24.4b), services (–€1.7b), primary income (+€8.6b) and secondary income (–€3.4b). In March 2014, the German current account showed a surplus of €22.0b.
In March 2015, Germany dispatched goods to the value of €61.5b to the member states of the European Union (EU), while it received goods to the value of €55b from those countries.
Compared with March 2014, exports to the EU countries increased by 10.8%, and imports from those countries by 5.1%. Goods to the value of €38.6b (+9.1%) were dispatched to Eurozone countries in March 2015, while the value of the goods received from those countries was €37.8b (+4.9%).
In March 2015, goods to the value of €23.0b (+13.7%) were shipped to EU countries not belonging to the Eurozone, while the value of the goods which arrived from those countries was €17.2b (+5.4%).
Exports of goods to countries outside the European Union (third countries) amounted to €46.0b in March 2015, while imports from those countries totalled €29.5b.
Compared with March 2014, exports to third countries increased by 14.6% and imports from those countries by 11.1%.
Tax Bonanza
German public treasurers can expect billions of euros more in tax income than previously thought, a government working group has found, as accelerating growth means state coffers filling faster over the next few years.
According to a new estimate released Thursday by the German government’s working group on taxes, state and regional administrations as well as municipalities will earn a total of 280.3 billion euros ($316 billion) in taxes this year - 6.3 billion euros more than forecast by the panel in its previous estimate in November.
Next year, German tax income was expected to be 7.7 billion euros higher, followed by an increase to 8.4 billion euros in 2017, the tax experts calculated. Until 2019, the total sum of higher-than-expected state income from taxes would swell to about 38 billion euros, they said.
