German exports fell in March by 3.3% over one month against a backdrop of war in Ukraine which caused exports to Russia to fall by 62%, the federal statistics office Destatis said on Wednesday.
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In total, Europe's largest economy imported €120.6 billion worth of goods, 8% more than in March 2020. Imports reached €117.4 billion, up 3% from the month last and 20.3% over one year, in connection in particular with the surge in energy prices.
Sales to Russia fell to 0.9 billion euros, down 62%, while imports -- including fossil fuels -- fell just 2.4% to 3.6 billion euros, says Destatis.
Before the war, Russia was ranked 14th among Germany's trading partners for exports and 12th for imports, marked by Berlin's heavy dependence on Russian gas.
“
The sharp decline in exports in March is the first indicator of the impact that the war in Ukraine is having on the German and European economy
,” explains Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING.
If “
the import figure shows that the supply difficulties have not yet reached the German economy
”, “
new confinements in China and the continuation of the problems in the supply chains will leave important traces on the industry German
,” he notes.
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Trade with European Union countries fell by 1.7% on the export side and by 3% for imports to 66.6 and 56.7 billion euros respectively.
For third countries, exports fell by 5.1% to 54 billion euros and imports increased by 10% to 60.7 billion.
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