The story appears on

Page B8

August 8, 2009

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business » Economy

German exports post 7% jump

GERMAN exports climbed 7 percent on the month in June, their biggest rise in nearly three years, government figures showed yesterday - the latest signal that prospects are improving for Europe's biggest economy.

The increase followed a slim 0.2 percent gain in May and was the biggest since September 2006, when exports rose 7.3 percent on the month.

Germany's total exports came to 68.5 billion euros (US$98.6 billion) in June, the Federal Statistical Office said in its preliminary report for the month.

In year-on-year terms, exports were still down a hefty 22.3 percent in June, a slightly smaller drop than the previous month's 24.6 percent.

Rising business confidence and healthy increases in industrial orders have generated optimism recently over the outlook for Germany's export-dependent economy, which went into a deep recession last year.

The export increase was far bigger than economists' prediction of a 0.9 percent rise.

Strong rises in foreign demand have powered recent increases in industrial orders, and "this should cause exports to rise sharply in the next months," said Simon Junker, an analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "The German economy should now see one or two quarters with strong growth rates."

For the first six months of the year, German exports totaled 391.8 billion euros - down 23.2 percent compared with the first half of 2008.

Imports increased 6.8 percent on the month in June at 56.3 billion euros after falling by 1.9 percent the previous month, yesterday's figures showed. They were down 17.2 percent on the year.






 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend