An increase in geopolitical tensions has not stopped German exports from rising steadily, fresh figures for October have shown. Monthly shipments abroad even logged a new record.
For the third time this year, monthly German exports surpassed the 100 billion-euro threshold, with the figures for October showing no sign of a major impact of geopolitical crises in the Middle East or Ukraine, DW reported.
In October, Germany exported goods to the tune of 103.9 billion euros ($127.9 billion), thus improving September’s record of 102.5 billion euros, the National Statistics Office Destatis reported Tuesday.
In a year-on-year comparison, shipments abroad rose by 4.9 percent and imports increased by 0.9 percent from October 2013 to October 2014.
The country’s trade surplus amounted to 21.9 billion euros in October, up from 17.8 billion euros a year earlier.
Destatis noted that exports to countries outside the 28-member European Union rose by 6.6 percent, with shipments to EU member states logging a 3.9-percent increase.
The Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) said it expected full-year exports to rise by 3 percent. It added it was even more optimistic about 2015 for which it penciled in a 4-percent surge in shipments abroad.
Exports to Rise
A German trade organization has said it expects a marked increase in exports next year despite geopolitical crises in several parts of the world. But it warned Berlin had to do more to encourage investments.
German shipments abroad would reach a record volume of 1.172 trillion euros ($1.469 trillion) next year, the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) predicted a few days ago.
It said this would mark a 4-percent rise in exports year-on-year, up from a forecast 1.126 trillion euros in 2014.
“Despite a number of geopolitical crises and economic risk factors around, global economic developments are not that bad after all,” BGA President Anton Borner told reporters in Berlin.
He warned, though, that despite the growth prospects, Germany’s share in overall global exports had been on its way down for quite some time now.s stymie Hamburg Port growth
Between 2003 and 2013, the country’s share in global shipments abroad sank from 9.9 percent to 7.7 percent while China’s share doubled over the same period. This was due, however, to China’s rapid expansion – not to any decline in German exports.
The BGA praised the German government for refraining from tax hikes and for its efforts towards a balanced budget. In the same breath, the industry association criticized the country’s high energy prices, and slammed underinvestment in the nation’s infrastructure – which it said was extremely harmful to an advanced country like Germany.
