Despite a slowdown in the global economy, German exporters have been able to ship more goods abroad than ever before. A brief December dent was not enough to spoil the party over record-breaking full-year trade figures.
German exports clocked up €1.196 trillion ($1.34 trillion) in 2015, the German statistics office Destatis announced Tuesday, adding the figure was based on preliminary calculations, DW reported.
If confirmed, the export volume would mark a new all-time, full-year record, marking a 6.4% increase from a year earlier.
Destatis said imports also went up considerably, reaching a volume of €948 billion last year, jumping 4.2% from the level recorded in 2014.
What the figures also mean is that Germany logged its biggest ever trade surplus last year with €247.8 billion in its favor, topping the €213.6 billion booked in the previous year.
According to the statistics office, most German exports went to member countries of the European Union, which imported goods to the tune of €694 billion–or 7% more than in 2014.
While exports to the EU increased, fewer goods were exported to China, the world’s second-largest economy, which is trudging through a period of economic slowdown, as well as Russia, which is suffering from economic sanctions and record-low oil prices.
Destatis confirmed that German exports decreased by 1.6% month-on-month in December 2015.
“Towards the end of last year, industrial production experienced a bit of a lull,” the German Economy Ministry commented. But it added that a recent pickup in factory orders made it confident the December dent would be short-lived.
