German Exports Plunge 10% Overall, 14% to Non-EU Countries

Jon Blogosphere, Economy, Market Commentary

Something doesn’t add up. Germany’s export-focused economy has been showing some signs of weakness, but no signs of an outright Financial-Crisis type collapse. So this data set released today by the German Statistical Agency doesn’t match those trends, and it doesn’t fit into the scenery. It could be an outlier, a statistical quirk, something that will be adjusted out of the way later. Or it could be a very unpleasant warning sign.
The German Statistical Agency today reported that, based on preliminary data, exports in July plunged 10% compared to July last year (not seasonally adjusted), to 96.4 billion.
And imports dropped 6.5% (not seasonally adjusted) year over year, to 76.9 billion. This slashed Germany’s trade surplus for July by 21% to 19.5 billion.
Exports to the 28-member European Union plunged 7.0% to 56.3 billion, while imports from EU countries dropped 4.5% to 51.3 billion.

This post was published at Wolf Street on September 9, 2016.