German exports post steepest fall since 1950FRANKFURT — German exports fell by 18.4 percent in 2009, the sharpest drop since 1950, new data showed on Tuesday, as China officially overtook the biggest European economy as the top global exporter.
"According to information of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Chinese exports amounted to 1,201.7 billion dollars, while German exports totalled 1,121.3 billion dollars" last year, Germany's national statistics office said.
The total value of German exports came to 803.2 billion euros (1.1 trillion dollars), while imports fell by 17.2 percent to 667.1 billion euros compared to 2008, the Destatis office said in a statement.
Germany nonetheless posted a trade surplus of 136.1 billion euros for 2009, even though that was lower than the 178.3 billion euros recorded in 2008.
German exports also showed a gain of 3.4 percent in December compared to the level 12 months earlier -- the first year-on-year gain since October 2008.Imports fell by 6.5 percent over the same period.
Compared with November 2009, exports were 3.0 percent higher and imports gained 4.5 percent.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gzNfSEU9VCynfKrxtA_PkJYxbe8ghttp://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/EN/press/pr/2010/02/PE10__045__051,templateId=renderPrint.psml
