German exports to China rise 10.1 pct in April: Destatis

BERLIN, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Germany's exports to China rose 10.1 percent month-on-month in April to 8.5 billion euros (9.1 billion U.S. dollars), according to provisional data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Monday.

With imports from China rising 1.9 percent to 12.9 billion euros, China continued to be Germany's biggest foreign trade partner in April, according to Destatis.

"China remains essential for foreign trade," Dirk Jandura, president of the German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services Association (BGA), said in a statement on Monday.

If Europe's largest economy was to decouple itself from China economically, Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) would drop by two percent, according to a recent study compiled by the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) on behalf of the Foundation for Family Businesses. This would result in annual losses of almost 57 billion euros.

"Decoupling our economy from the Chinese market would not be in the interest of jobs in Germany. Others would take our place," German Minister of Finance Christian Lindner stressed earlier this year.

Germany's total exports in April rose slightly by 1.2 percent month-on-month and reached 130.4 billion euros, according to Destatis. Imports, meanwhile, fell by 1.7 percent to 112.0 billion euros.

"Our exports have developed positively thanks to the improved economic situation in China and the U.S., but we see more of a sideways movement here," Jandura said, adding that increased prices due to high inflation outweighed the gain. "The situation seems better than it actually is."

In May, sentiment in the German export industry was "markedly worse" than in the previous month, the ifo Institute for Economic Research recently said. The ifo export expectations fell by 4.7 points month-on-month to just 6.5 points, the lowest level since November 2022.

"Global interest rate hikes are slowly having an effect on demand," ifo expert Klaus Wohlrabe said. "The German export economy lacks momentum." (1 euro = 1.07 U.S. dollar)