German Exports Rose as Global Recovery Gained Pace
German exports rose
Jochen Eckel/Bloomberg
The CMA CGM SA container ship Parsifal arrives at the harbor in Hamburg.
The CMA CGM SA container ship Parsifal arrives at the harbor in Hamburg. Photographer: Jochen Eckel/Bloomberg
Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Karsten Junius, a senior economist at Dekabank, talks about the outlook for the German economy. The country's exports rose more than economists forecast in June as the global recovery helped bolster an export-led expansion in Europe’s largest economy. Junius speaks with Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg)
German exports rose more than economists forecast in June as the global recovery helped bolster an export-led expansion in Europe’s largest economy.
Sales abroad, adjusted for working days and seasonal changes, rose 3.8 percent from May, when they increased a revised 7.9 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists forecast a gain of 1.5 percent, the median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey shows. Imports rose 1.9 percent from May, when they jumped 13.7 percent.
“Surprisingly high exports raise expectations,” said Simon Junker, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “Trade with Asia is above pre-crisis level and incoming orders point toward good growth numbers over the next few months.”
The euro has shed 7.3 percent against the dollar this year, making exports more competitive outside the 16-nation region just as the global recovery gathered strength. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s biggest maker of luxury cars, said today that sales rose 9.1 percent in July on Chinese demand.
The euro rose against the dollar after the trade report, strengthening as much as 0.2 percent to $1.3308 before paring its gain. It was at $1.3284 at 11:48 a.m. in Frankfurt.
‘Encouraging Sign’
German exports rose 29 percent in June from a year earlier, today’s report showed. Exports to countries outside the European Union increased 37 percent and sales to countries within the euro region rose 22 percent.
“The continuous buoyant development in German exports is a very encouraging sign” for the economy, said German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle in an e-mailed statement today. “The recovery process is becoming more broad based and stronger.”
Reviving export demand may have helped the German economy gather strength in the second quarter. Gross domestic product probably rose 1.3 percent from the first quarter, when it increased 0.2 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The statistics office will release the report on Aug. 13.
Lanxess AG, Germany’s largest publicly traded specialty chemicals maker, on Aug. 6 raised its full-year earnings target on increasing demand. Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest carmaker, on July 29 reported the biggest quarterly profit in two years.
“We are reaping the benefits not only of the global economic recovery but also of customers’ positive response to our vehicles,” BMW sales chief Ian Robertson said today. The Munich-based company also forecast sales growth to “remain strong” over the coming months.
Germany’s trade surplus widened to 14.1 billion euros ($19 billion) in June from 9.8 billion euros in May. The surplus in the current account, a measure of all trade including services, was 12.9 billion euros, up from 1.8 billion euros in May.
“China will soon become Germany’s number one export market after the EU,” Anton Boerner, head of Germany’s BGA wholesale and export federation, said in an e-mailed statement today. “We will reach pre-crisis level faster than expected, if this trend continues.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Berberich in Frankfurt at sberberich@bloomberg.net
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