Germany: Exports pick up again in August

German exports rebounded 1.6% on the month in August, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

In total, the largest European economy exported goods worth 133.1 billion euros, data adjusted for seasonal and calendar variations, Testatis said in a press release.

After a 2.1% decline in July, this closely followed indicator in Germany rebounded in August.

This is in line with the expectations of financial analysts at Factset, who had expected a 1.5% increase.

According to Testatis, in one year, exports rose by 18.1%.

The increase was driven especially by the explosion in sales of German products in the US, which increased by 12% in a month.

Exports to China, another major customer of German industry, also rose by 2.9% to 9.2 billion euros.

On the contrary, sales for EU countries indicate the timing: member states absorbed 72.8 billion euros worth of German products, down 0.8%.

Despite this recovery in exports, the German trade balance narrowed significantly, to 1.2 billion euros against 5.4 billion euros in July.

“The war in Ukraine achieves what nothing has achieved before: to eliminate the famous German trade surplus”, comments Carsten Breschi for ING Bank.

The conflict led to the cut off of Russian gas supplies to Germany, which before the conflict was 55% dependent on Moscow for its imports.

The cost of Germany’s imports rose to 131.9 billion euros as a result of higher energy prices, an increase of 33.3% year-on-year.

The German economy is expected to experience a 0.4% decline in its GDP in 2023 due to the crisis, according to the country’s main economic institutes.