Status: 02/16/2023 10:46 a.m
In the past year, too, the German economy exported more goods than it imported. But the trade surplus halved as a result of the Russian war against Ukraine.
Due to the sharp rise in energy prices, Germany’s export surplus in trade with other countries was lower last year than it has been since the turn of the millennium. It is true that once again more goods were exported than imported. The so-called foreign trade balance – the difference between exports and imports – fell from 175.3 billion euros in the previous year to 79.7 billion euros, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine around a year ago, oil and natural gas, for example, rose massively in price. This caused the cost of imported energy products to skyrocket.
China remains the most important trading partner
In the exchange of goods with China, there was even a record trade deficit of 84.3 billion euros. While imports from the People’s Republic rose by 33.6 percent to a record 191.1 billion euros, German exports to the Asian country increased by only 3.1 percent to 106.8 billion euros.
Despite the country’s continued very restrictive foreign trade policy, China remained Germany’s most important trading partner for the seventh time in a row. Exports and imports totaled 297.9 billion euros. The USA followed in second and third place with an increase of 27.5 percent to 247.8 billion euros and the Netherlands with an increase of 13.3 percent to 233.6 billion euros.
Cars, machines and chemicals as export hits
The importance of Great Britain for German foreign trade has continued to decline since the final break with the EU a good two years ago. With a foreign trade turnover of 111 billion euros, the country slipped from tenth to eleventh place behind the Czech Republic in the ranking of the most important trading partners. In 2017, the year after the Brexit referendum, Great Britain was fifth.
The most important export goods of the German economy are still cars. As in previous years, this is followed by machinery and chemical products in second and third place.