BERLIN (Reuters) – German exports to the United States and China jumped on the year in April, data showed on Thursday, suggesting that strong demand from abroad is helping Europe’s largest economy recover from last year’s coronavirus slump.
Exports to the United States, Germany’s biggest sales market outside the European Union, soared by 60.4% year-on-year in April to 10.1 billion euros ($12.31 billion), preliminary trade figures from the statistics office showed.
Exports to China, Germany’s second largest exports destination outside the EU’s single market, rose by 16.3% to 8.4 billion euros, the office said.
Exports to Britain jumped by 58.6% on the year to 5.1 billion euros.
Overall, exports to non-EU countries rose by 35.6% on the year to 50.8 billion euros.
The statistics office said that the year-on-year figures for April were strongly impacted by the first coronavirus wave in 2020 which had pushed down exports compared to April 2019.
It added that exports to non-EU member states, also called third countries, accounted for roughly 47% of overall exports. This means that more than half of Germany’s exports still go to clients within the EU’s single market despite Britain’s exit.
“When comparing with the same month of the previous year, it should be noted that German exports to third countries in April 2020 fell by 27.1% compared to April 2019 in the wake of the coronavirus crisis,” the statistics office said.
The statistics office will release its full trade figures for April, including sales to other EU countries, on June 9.
($1 = 0.8205 euros)
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Riham Alkousaa and Toby Chopra)
