Germany’s exports and imports slumped by 9.3% and 7.1% respectively during 2020, concluded the federal statistics office Destatis. The figures are in comparison to data from 2019, showing the stark impact of the coronavirus pandemic on international trade. Exports of goods and services totaled €1,204.7 billion ($1,450.5 billion). Imports to Germany totaled €1,025.6, with the heftiest hits occurring in March and April 2020 when the pandemic began to disrupt supply chains. Decreases in exports and imports were the “largest” experienced by Germany since the global financial and economic crisis of 2009.
Despite the challenges of 2020, Germany still maintained its typical foreign trade surplus — where exports exceeded imports. For the total year, however, the surplus fell for a fourth year in a row, amounting to €179 billion. The figure is still up compared to Germany’s shrunken surplus of 2011, when it stood at €158.7 billion — but comes in much lower than in 2019, when Germany’s foreign trade balance was €224 billion in plus. From its export perspective, Germany’s most important trading partners were the United States followed by China and then France. The US took €103.8 billion of German goods and services — a 12.5% decline on 2019 — and to China Germany exported €95.9 billion — at -0.1% for 2020, hardly unchanged over the level in 2019. As for imports, Germany took in the most goods from China, followed by the Netherlands and in third place the US.