FRANKFURT: Germany clocked up its highest-ever trade surplus in 2015 as both exports and imports powered ahead to new records, official data showed on Tuesday. German exports jumped by 6.4 percent to 1.196 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) in the whole of 2015 and imports advanced by 4.2 percent to 948 billion euros, the federal statistics office calculated.
That meant that the trade surplus — the balance between exports and imports — grew to 247.8 billion euros, its highest-ever level, from 213.6 billion euros a year earlier, the statisticians said. The trade surplus is a key gauge of an economy’s comparative strength and underlines the robustness of Europe’s biggest economy amid the current global economic uncertainties.
German-made goods were in strong demand all over the world last year, with exports to the EU rising 7.0 percent and exports to other countries rising 5.6 percent, Destatis said. Within the EU, exports to the eurozone climbed by 5.9 percent, while exports to European countries outside the single currency area grew by 8.9 percent.
In December alone, however, both exports and imports declined by 1.6 percent in calendar- and seasonally-adjusted terms, meaning that the trade surplus contracted slightly to 19.4 billion euros, Destatis said.
