German export machine revs up

11 May 2004

WIESBADEN – Germany’s export sector showed powerful growth in March, with exports reaching EUR 65 billion, up 16.6 percent from the same month last year, the Federal Statistics Office reported Tuesday.

The office said imports, at EUR 48.5 billion, were up 5.3 percent on March 2003 levels.

The resulting EUR 16.5 billion trade surplus was more than 80 percent higher than the EUR 9.7 billion euro in March 2003.

For the first three months of 2004, German exports came to EUR 177.3 billion, up 8.9 percent over the same quarter last year, while imports were two percent higher at EUR 136.2 billion.

The EUR 41.1 billion trade surplus far outpaced the EUR 29.3 billion figure in the first quarter of 2003, the office figures showed.

At the same time, Germany’s balance on current accounts – the sum of visible trade, services and transfers – also improved further. The current accounts surplus in the first quarter of 2004 reached EUR 15.6 billion, compared with EUR 9 billion a year earlier.

The export figures showed that Germany’s foreign trade sector continued to perform well despite the strong value of the euro.

Exports to markets outside the European Union came to EUR 28.8 billion in March, up 25.9 percent on March 2003 figures. The first quarter total, at EUR 78.2 billion, was 10.6 percent up on exports outside the EU in the first quarter of last year.

DPA

Subject: German news