German Exports Rose in February
April 09 2020 - 2:49AM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Martinez
German exports rose in February, before the coronavirus pandemic
hit Europe, Germany's statistics office Destatis said Thursday.
German exports rose 1.3% in February from January in adjusted
terms and imports contracted 1.6% on month, the statistics office
said. The figures account for seasonal swings and calendar
effects.
Economists had forecast a 0.8% decline in exports in adjusted
terms, according to a poll from The Wall Street Journal.
First effects of the pandemic were observed in the trade in
goods with China, which was affected in particular by the
coronavirus in February, Destatis said. Compared with February
2019, exports to China decreased 8.9% to 6.8 billion euros ($7.4
billion), while imports from China fell 12.0% to EUR7.4
billion.
The export data follow positive data from the industrial sector
in February, the last month before the coronavirus started to
severely hit Europe, indicating how recovery could have been
without the pandemic.
Germany's trade surplus--the balance of exports and imports of
goods--totaled 21.6 billion euros ($23.4 billion) in calendar and
seasonally adjusted terms in February, according to Destatis. This
compares with The Wall Street Journal's forecast of EUR17.2
billion.
Exports totaled EUR109.3 billion, while imports amounted to
EUR88.5 billion, both in adjusted terms. Of the exports, EUR58.6
billion went to European Union member states and EUR50.6 billion to
third countries, Destatis said.
According to provisional results from the Deutsche Bundesbank,
the current account of the balance of payments showed a surplus of
EUR23.7 billion, which takes into account the balances of trade in
goods including supplementary trade items, services, primary income
and secondary income. This is compares with The Wall Street
Journal's forecast of EUR17.0 billion.
Write to Maria Martinez at maria.martinez@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 09, 2020 02:34 ET (06:34 GMT)
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