BERLIN: On the basis of data from the Federal Statistics Office the German Furniture Industry Association (VDM) reports that among the ten most important destination countries for German furniture exports, deliveries to the USA declined most sharply in the first quarter, at 17.1% to €101.7m.
There was also a fall in the value of exports to Austria (-10.4% auf €235.1m), the Netherlands (-7.7% to €198.4m), Great Britain (-1.4% to €176.7m), Belgium (-5.2% to €130.8m) and Spain (-1.5% to €85.5m). In contrast, exports to the two most important destination countries France (+2.4% to €342.1m) and Switzerland (+2.5% to €300.8m) increased.
The highest rates of growth in exports among the ten most important destination countries were shown for Poland (+9.6% to €115.5m) and the Czech Republic (+6.4% to €105.4m). Growth in the first quarter for markets for German furniture exports outside those ten countries included China (+24.8% to €64.1m) and Slovenia (+20.3% to €21.1m), which also achieved the highest rates of growth overall.
