German Statistics Office: despite the recession, Germany's foreign trade balance remains positive in 2023 as well
Amid the recession hitting Europe’s former “industrial locomotive,” Germany’s GDP is set to fall by 0.3% in 2023. This is slightly better than expectations, which predicted a 0.4% decline. Germany’s foreign trade last year also fell by 1.4% to €1.562 billion. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt, Destatis), Germany’s exports in December 2023 decreased by 4.6%, falling to €125.3 billion.
Imports also decreased in the final month of 2023 by 6.7% from November and by as much as 12.4% from December 2022, falling to €103.1 billion. German imports fell 9.7% year-on-year to €1.325 trillion in monetary terms.
Despite the contraction, Germany’s trade balance remained positive in 2023, with 209.6 billion euros in 2023 and 22.2 billion euros in December. As for the main German export destinations, in December 2023, Germany exported €67.5 billion worth of products and services to EU member states (-5.5% year-on-year), while imports from other EU countries amounted to €54.3 billion (-7.4%). German exports to third countries in December 2023 amounted to €57.8 billion (-3.5% compared to November), while imports fell to €48.8 billion (-5.9% compared to the previous month’s total).
In conclusion, the Federal Statistical Office emphasized that, as before, “the main destination market for goods and services with the ‘made in Germany’ label is the USA.” In December 2023, Germany’s exports to the US totaled €12.7 billion, marking a 5.5% decrease compared to November 2023. Germany’s exports to China and Great Britain in December 2023 were €7.5 billion and €7.4 billion respectively, representing a decline of 7.9% and 4.3% respectively.