With imports from China rising 2.2 percent to 15.4 billion euros, China remained Germany's biggest foreign trade partner in August, Destatis said.
With slight increases in both total exports and imports, Europe's largest economy had a foreign trade surplus of 3.4 billion euros in August, around 10 billion euros less than a year ago. Germany's foreign trade surplus has continuously declined over the last five years.
"Sentiment among German exporters has cooled," Clemens Fuest, president of the ifo Institute for economic research said last week. The index for export expectations in September fell to its lowest level since May 2020, as most manufacturing industries were pessimistic about future business.
"There is currently no sign of growth in exports and, as the global economy is slowing, there is also no reason to expect any major change in the medium term," Fuest warned.
Germany is set to enter a recession in 2023, with a decline in gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.4 percent, according to a recent joint forecast by leading economic institutes in the country.
Having still forecast growth of 3.1 percent in spring, the revision mainly reflects the extent of the energy crisis, the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and the ifo Institute said.
Germany's wholesale and export trade industry has concerns there will be a "corporate extinction" due to skyrocketing energy prices. Some companies are "facing a situation that threatens their very existence," said Dirk Jandura, president of the industry association BGA last month.
To stabilize Germany's economy during the energy crisis, the country is putting up a "defensive umbrella" of up to 200 billion euros, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced last week. (1 euro = 0.99 U.S. dollars)
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