Germany's trade surplus fell to 15.6 billion euros in September as exports rose 2.0 percent to 141.1 billion euros and imports jumped 4.2 percent to 125.5 billion euros, Destatis said.
Germany's trade surplus narrowed to 15.6 billion euros in September as imports surged at more than twice the pace of exports, the Federal Statistical Office said on Monday.
Exports rose 2.0 percent on the month to 141.1 billion euros, Destatis reported, while imports jumped 4.2 percent to 125.5 billion euros, the highest import level in nearly four years. The surplus was down from 17.9 billion euros in August and below the 19.2 billion euros analysts had expected.
Compared with a year earlier, exports were up 7.7 percent and imports 8.7 percent, on provisional data. Germany exported 80.8 billion euros of goods to EU member states in the month. Destatis cautioned that the first provisional figures will be updated on 20 November, when full detailed results are published.
The figures are Destatis's own, published in press release No. 390 on Monday, so the numbers are primary-source data rather than survey estimates. The import surge is the striking part of the release, but Destatis itself notes that detailed results are not yet available and that it cannot yet explain the reasons for the changes in trade with individual countries or groups. The analyst forecast of 19.2 billion euros comes from market expectations cited in coverage of the release, not from Destatis. The year-on-year comparisons are based on provisional data and may be revised.
A narrowing surplus is not a crisis for the world's third-largest exporter, but the direction matters: imports growing faster than exports points to domestic demand holding up even as Germany's industry wrestles with high energy costs and weak demand abroad. The fuller picture arrives on 20 November, when Destatis publishes the detailed breakdown, including whether the import jump came from energy, machinery or consumer goods, and which trading partners drove it.