BERLIN: For decades, France was the single biggest importer of German goods. But that’s changed now. The United States has taken the pole position among clients for “Made in Germany” goods for the first time.
Data released by the German federal statistics agency (Destatis) showed that clients in the US bought more goods and services from Germany in the first six months of 2015 than did those of any other country – even France, which has long been the No. 1 customer for everything Made in Germany.
“The US’s rise to the top isn’t a passing fad,” the head of the external trade department at the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), Volker Treier, told Reuters news agency. France no longer being Germany’s single biggest customer amounts to “the end of an era.”
One reason for increased imports from Germany is that the US economy is growing fast.
The other reason is the weak euro, which has given a big boost to German exports to the US. Measured in dollar terms, everything made in Europe suddenly became substantially cheaper early in 2015.
In early 2014, it took $1.39 to buy a euro – the euro’s highest level since autumn 2011. A year later, the euro had plunged so dramatically that it only took $1.05 to buy a unit of the eurozone’s currency. In the past couple of days, the euro has cost between $1.135 and $1.155.
Thanks to the combination of a rising US economy and a sinking euro,
