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German Jan exports surge 20.5 pc on year

FRANKFURT: German exports surged by 20.5 percent to 84.4 billion marks in January compared to one year ago but were outpaced by a 25.1 percent rise in imports, which swelled to 77.4 billion marks.

Germany's Federal Statistics Office on Friday said rising imports helped to narrow January's trade surplus to 7.0 billion marks from 8.2 billion marks one year ago.

The smaller trade surplus, which narrowed only slightly on a month-on-month basis from 7.9 billion marks in December, confounded analysts, who had forecast on average a rise to 8.1 billion marks in January, according to a Reuters poll.

Germany recorded 85.1 billion marks in exports and 77.2 billion marks in imports in December, the office said.

Germany's current account deficit widened in January to 13.6 billion marks from 8.1 billion marks in December and 12.1 billion marks one year ago.

The wider deficit was due in part to lower net exports, the data showed.