German Trade Balance shows a 1.9% improvement (year-over-year) in the October’s report

According to a report released at 07:00 GMT on Monday, German exports saw a slight improvement in October. A total of 119.5 billion euros worth of goods were exported by Germany in October. The report further added that the figure was noted at 1.2% lower in September. In terms of year-over-year growth, German exports have printed a 1.9% improvement in October.

On the imports front, however, the data was seen contradictory. In October 2019, Germany imported a total of 98.0 billion euros worth of goods. As per the report, September’s data was also seen identical with no significant changes in German imports in October. Compared to the data for the same month last year, however, German imports have declined by 0.6%.

German Foreign Trade Balance Showed A Surplus Of 21.5 Billion Euros

The recently announced October’s report declared a 21.5 billion euros of surplus in the foreign trade balance. Compared to the figure for October 2018, the surplus showed an increment of 18.7 billion euros. After seasonal adjustments, the analysts recorded October 2019’s foreign trade surplus at 20.6 billion euros. In a previous estimate, analysts had expected 19.0 billion euros of foreign trade balance surplus in October. As per the report, however, Germany beat the expectation by more than 1.0 billion euros (adjusted).

The surplus in German current account as per the Deutsche Bundesbank’s provisional results was highlighted as 22.7 billion euros in October. The German trade account showed a surplus of 22.5 billion euros in the supplementary trade items and another 9 billion euros of surplus in primary income. In terms of services and secondary income, however, a deficit of 4.3 billion euros and 4.5 billion euros respectively were seen in October. The surplus in the German current account was noted at 20.3 billion euros in October last year.

Over 50% Of Germany’s Trade Was With The European Union Member States

Of the 119.5 billion euros of total exports in October 2019, 70.0 billion euros worth of exports were made to the European Union Member States. On the other hand, a total of 55.2 billion euros worth of imports were from the same EU states. In terms of year-over-year change, October’s report showed an increase of 0.1% in exports made to the EU states while a 0.2% decline in the goods imported from these states.

The report further highlighted that the Euro area countries imported 43.8 billion euros worth of goods (-0.9%) from Germany in October 2019 while exporting 35.5 billion euros worth of goods (+0.1%) to it. EU countries outside of the Euro area imported 26.2 billion euros of products from Germany (+1.7%) in October 2019, while Germany imported 19.6 billion euros of products (-0.7%) from such countries.

The forex market has not responded lucratively to the German trade balance report of October.