German exports to America fell by more than 9% last year, the state statistics agency has said
FILE PHOTO: Flags of Germany and China. © Global Look Press / Kay Nietfeld
[RT] China
has overtaken the US as Germany’s biggest trading partner, the German
Federal Statistics Agency said in a report published on Friday. The
nation’s trade deficit with the Asian country reached a record level of
€89.3 billion ($105 billion), according to the agency’s data.
The
largest supplier of goods to Germany since 2015 has been China,
underscoring the depth of their economic ties. Although the US briefly
overtook it as Germany’s top trading partner in 2024, China regained the
lead last year. Its exports to Germany rose by 8.8%, pushing total
bilateral trade to €251.8 billion.
Germany’s own exports to China
fell by 9.7% over the same period. Last year, China’s exports to Germany
were worth more than twice what Germany itself sold to China, the data
shows.
Meanwhile, Berlin’s exports to the US – the largest
importer of German goods – fell by 9.4% in 2025, slashing the trade
surplus between the two nations from €69.6 billion to €51.9 billion,
according to the statistics agency.
Overall exports increased by less than 1% while imports grew by 4.3%
last year, the data show. The nation’s trade balance still stayed net
positive and amounted to €200.5 billion.
The German economy, which
had relied on Russia for 55% of its natural gas, took a heavy blow
after the country joined Western sanctions against Moscow following the
escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
High energy prices – a
result of the government’s decision to ditch cost-effective Russian oil
and gas imports – have repeatedly been cited by German media and
officials as a key factor behind the economic slowdown. In mid-January,
the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry linked it to what it
called an alarmingly high number of bankruptcies.
The German
Economic Institute reported earlier this month that the nation had lost
more than $1 trillion in GDP output in successive crises, including the
Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict.