German exports fall more than expected in February

In February, German exports experienced a more pronounced decline than anticipated, primarily driven by reduced exports to European Union (EU) countries, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Office on Monday.

The data revealed a 2% month-on-month decrease in exports for February, surpassing the Reuters poll forecast of a 0.5% decline. Conversely, imports surged by 3.2% during the same period, as reported by the statistics office.

The foreign trade balance exhibited a surplus of 21.4 billion euros ($23.17 billion) in February, down from 27.6 billion euros recorded in January and 16.9 billion euros in February 2023.

Notably, exports to EU countries experienced a notable decline of 3.9% compared to the previous month, while exports to third countries saw a modest increase of 0.4%.

Among individual trading partners, exports to the United States notably rose by 10.2% compared to January. In contrast, exports to China experienced a slight decrease of 0.6% during the same period.