German Exports Fall Most In 10 Months

(RTTNews) - Germany's exports declined at the fastest pace in ten months in October mainly due the double-digit fall in demand from the US and overall imports logged a marginal fall, data from Destatis revealed Friday. Exports fell 2.8 percent month-on-month in October, slower than the 1.8 percent decrease in September. This was the biggest fall since last December. Shipments were forecast to fall 2.0 percent.

At the same time, imports dropped only 0.1 percent. This was in contrast to the prior month's 2.0 percent growth but the actual fall was much slower than economists' forecast of 0.6 percent decline.

Consequently, the trade surplus showed a surplus of EUR 13.4 billion in October. The surplus was expected to fall to EUR 15.7 billion from EUR 16.9 billion in September.

On a yearly basis, exports climbed 0.4 percent, in contrast to the 0.3 percent fall in September. Growth in imports accelerated to 4.3 percent from 1.3 percent.

Exports to euro area countries dropped 0.7 percent on month and imports from these countries remained unchanged in October.

Shipments to the US declined 14.2 percent on month and that to China fell 3.8 percent. By contrast, exports to the UK grew 2.1 percent.

Imports from the US and China fell 3.9 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively, while imports from the UK advanced 1.4 percent.