Germany's trade surplus fell sharply in April

According to the report from Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), Germany exported goods to the value of 75.7 billion euros and imported goods to the value of 72.2 billion euros in April 2020. Destatis also reports that exports decreased by 31.1% and imports by 21.6% in April 2020 year on year. That was the largest decline of exports in a month compared with the same month a year earlier since the introduction of foreign trade statistics in 1950. The last time German imports went down that much was in July 2009 during the financial crisis (-23.6%).

After calendar and seasonal adjustment, exports were down 24.0% and imports 16.5% compared with March 2020. For both exports and imports, this was the strongest month-on-month decline after calendar and seasonal adjustment since the beginning of the time series in August 1990.

The foreign trade balance showed a surplus of 3.5 billion euros in April 2020. That was the lowest export surplus shown for Germany since December 2000 (+1.7 billion euros). In April 2019, the surplus was 17.8 billion euros. In calendar and seasonally adjusted terms, the foreign trade balance recorded a surplus of 3.2 billion euros in April 2020.

The German current account of the balance of payments showed a surplus of 7.7 billion euros in April 2020, which takes into account the balances of trade in goods (+2.8 billion euros), services (+0.3 billion euros), primary income (+8.9 billion euros) and secondary income (-4.3 billion euros). In April 2019, the German current account showed a surplus of 20.6 billion euros.