Small economic miracle: record increase in exports in March

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Container loading in the port of Hamburg (in April)

Photo: Daniel Reinhardt / dpa

The German economy remains on the road to recovery.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, exports rose significantly in March compared to the same month last year by 16.1 percent to 126.5 billion euros.

That was the strongest increase in a month.

Compared to February 2021, exports increased by 1.2 percent.

Analysts had expected a weaker increase of only 0.5 percent.

However, the pre-crisis level of February was still 0.9 percent below.

In the entire first quarter, however, imports were again 6.7 percent above the pre-Corona values.

In the first three months of the year imports increased by 2.4 percent to 280 billion euros.

The demand for “Made in Germany” was particularly high in China.

Exports to the world's second largest economy rose by almost 38 percent compared to March 2020.

Brexit continued to leave its mark on trade with Great Britain, which had left the EU internal market and the customs union at the turn of the year.

Exports to the country fell by 13.2 percent compared to the same month last year.

For the current year the foreign trade association BGA expects a clear plus.

According to the Ifo Institute, the mood of export companies rose in April to its highest level since January 2011. In many countries, the industry is hardly affected by the pandemic.

The demand for German export goods will benefit significantly from this, explained the economic research institute.

sbo / dpa