Germany's Exports Recover In May
09 July 2018 - 6:39PM
RTTF2
German exports rebounded from April despite trade war disputes,
but imports growth weakened in May.
Exports grew by a more-than-expected 1.8 percent on a monthly
basis in May, reversing a 0.3 percent drop in April, figures from
Destatis showed Monday. Shipments were expected to gain 0.7
percent.
Meanwhile, imports rose at a slower pace of 0.7 percent after
climbing 2.6 percent in the previous month. Nonetheless, this was
the second consecutive rise and confounded economists' expectations
for a 0.5 percent fall.
Consequently, the trade surplus rose to a seasonally adjusted
EUR 20.3 billion in May from EUR 19 billion in April.
The latest weakening of the euro should bring some relief in the
coming months, more than offsetting current US tariffs on European
aluminum and steel, Carsten Brzeski, an ING-DiBa economist,
said.
The impact from changes of the euro exchange rate has been and
should continue to remain much more important to German exports
than any trade tensions, Brzeski added.
Despite the very benign impact of trade tensions so far, a
fully-fledged trade war would surely leave negative marks on the
German economy, he added.
Data showed that year-on-year, exports declined 1.3 percent, in
contrast to a 9.3 percent rise last month. At the same time, the
increase in imports came in at 0.8 percent versus 8.6 percent in
April.
The unadjusted trade surplus fell to EUR 19.7 billion from EUR
21.8 billion in the same month last year and remained below the
expected level of EUR 20.2 billion.
Further, data showed that the current account surplus decreased
to EUR 12.6 billion from EUR 15.2 billion last year.
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