BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s exports rose slightly more than expected in August despite a cooling global economy, rising interest rates and a shortage of materials, Germany’s statistics office said on Wednesday.
Strong demand from Germany U.S. and China helped push exports to 133 100 million euros in August ($132.59 billion US dollars) rose 1.6% from the previous month.
Imports also rose more than expected, up 3.4% to 131 900 million euros, the seventh consecutive month of growth.
A Reuters poll forecast that both exports and imports rose 1.1% month-on-month.
Analysts welcomed the August data but warned that exports could be a drag on growth amid a gloomy economic outlook.
Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank, said high energy costs due to the war in Ukraine are slowing domestic production, which will negatively affect exports.
“With a strong export industry, the German economy is particularly vulnerable to global economic adversity,” he said.
Germany’s seasonally adjusted trade surplus was lower than expected in August, at 1.2 billion euros, according to the Statistics Office, compared with analysts’ forecast of 4 billion euros.
“The Ukrainian war has succeeded in accomplishing what nothing else could: wipe out the notorious German trade surplus,” said ING economist Carsten Brzeski. Driven by high energy prices and structural weakness in exports, ‘is disappearing,'” he added.
A breakdown of German imports and exports is available on the Statistics Office website See above.
($1=1.0038 EUR)
