Slowing down a little bit – in part due to a few working days less in the month of June – a very successful development over the first half of the year has come to an end for the German export industry. Imports keep being at a high level too, said Mr Anton Börner, chairman of the Association of German Wholesale and Foreign trade (BGA) who expressed himself on the situation of the German foreign trade in the first half of the year.
“Due to reduced exports as well as continuously high energy and commodity prices the German foreign trade surplus has fallen by 3.4 billion Euros as compared to the same month one year ago. Altogether the first six months in 2006 have been very successful for German foreign trade, although – due to the reasons just mentioned- the foreign trade surplus has decreased by 7.5 billion Euros as compared to the same period last year. Therefore we are very optimistic also for the second half of the year”, continued the BGA chairman.
Yesterday the Federal Statistical Office published new monthly figures on the development of the German foreign trade in June 2006. According to these figures German exports rose by 7 percent to 73.5 billion Euros as compared to the same month last year, whereas imports were even up by 15.8 percent totaling 60.2 billion Euros. Over the first half year exports increased by 12.9 percent to 431.6 billion Euros, whereas imports rose by 19.1 percent to 354.2 billion Euros. Particularly strong was the increase in foreign trade with non-EU countries. The exchange of goods with EU-members states which are not a part of the Euro zone was also marked by an above-average increase. 