Due to the coronavirus pandemic, German exports fell more sharply last year than after the 2009 financial crisis. The federation's overseas shipments fell 9.3 percent to € 1,204.7 billion, the Federal Statistical Office of the Federal Republic of Germany said on Tuesday. This was the first decline since 2013 and the strongest since 2009 - at that time minus 18.4 percent. Last year, imports also fell more sharply than since 2009, by 7.1 percent to 1,025.6 billion euros.
The decline in German exports was mainly due to a sharp decline at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. After that, German exports grew for eight months in a row - the last time in December, by 0.1 percent compared to the previous month.
Germany's exports were rescued from an even greater collapse in supplies to the People's Republic of China, which rose 11.6 percent in December to 9.3 billion euros, and exports to the United States, which rose 8.4 percent and 9.2 billion euros.
In December 2020, Germany sold 100.7 billion euros worth of goods abroad and imported goods worth 85.9 billion euros in total. Compared to December 2019, exports grew 2.7 percent in December 2020 and imports grew 3.5 percent. The foreign trade balance closed in December 2020 with a surplus of 14.8 billion euros.
