Foreign countries make a larger contribution to German exports than any federal state. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the proportion of “goods of foreign origin” not manufactured in Germany in the exports of German companies rose from almost 10 percent to 24.5 percent between 1990 and 2021. Without foreign production, Germany would not have had an export surplus since 2018. This shows how difficult it would be for Germany to deglobalize and untangle the global supply chains. The Ukraine war and growing tensions with China are fueling the debate about relocating industrial production. But the Federal Republic of Germany is economically much more closely intertwined than the USA or China with their large home markets. “The share of imported intermediate goods in the German production of final goods was 20 percent in 2019,” says Lisandra Flach, head of the Center for Foreign Trade at the Ifo Institute. “Compared to the USA and China, also due to their enormous national market size, this number is high.”
Germany – Many exports are not at all – economy
