China pulls German trade up but Brexit hits UK business
Updated / Friday, 9 Apr 2021
09:10
German exports rose in February, boosted by strong trade with China
German exports rose in February, boosted by surging trade with China in a fresh sign that factories are busy in Europe s largest economy despite a sharp drop in trade with the UK after Brexit.
Seasonally adjusted exports increased by 0.9% on the month after an upwardly revised rise of 1.6% in January, the Federal Statistics Office said on Friday.
German imports rose 3.6% after falling 3.5% in the prior month.
A Reuters poll had pointed to a 1% increase in exports and a 2.4% rise in imports. The trade surplus shrank to €19.1 billion, today s figures show.
Trade surplus shrinks to 19.1 bln euros Exports to China surge 25.7% y/y, those to UK slump 12.2% Industrial output -1.6% m/m in February (Adds economist comment, background)
BERLIN, April 9 (Reuters) - German exports rose in February, boosted by surging trade with China in a fresh sign that factories are busy in Europe’s largest economy despite a sharp drop in trade with the United Kingdom after Brexit.
Seasonally adjusted exports increased by 0.9% on the month after an upwardly revised rise of 1.6% in January, the Federal Statistics Office said on Friday. Imports rose 3.6% after falling 3.5% in the prior month.
A Reuters poll had pointed to a 1.0% increase in exports and a 2.4% rise in imports. The trade surplus shrank to 19.1 billion euros. On the year, exports to China increased by 25.7%.
UK-France trade back at pre-pandemic levels in March
Despite some issues at the start of the year, the data suggests that the impact of the UK s departure from the EU might not be as bad as feared for UK-French trade. (AFP via Getty Images)
UK-France trade bounced back to close to pre-pandemic levels in March, raising hopes that the impact of Britain’s departure from the EU might not be as dramatic as feared.
Data from French customs officials showed that after a plunge in January, imports from the UK rose to 107 per cent of pre-Covid levels last month, with exports at 96 per cent.
Poverty in Germany: Two-million people too poor to heat their homes
On February 15, as temperatures plunged well below zero, snow and frost covered large parts of Europe and the homeless froze to death on the streets, the German Federal Statistics Office reported that more than 2 million people in Germany were freezing in their homes because they were too poor to heat them.
The figures refer to 2019, when 2.5 percent of the population was afflicted by this problem. The proportion was particularly high among those living in single-person households, at 4.8 percent, and among single parents and their children, at 7 percent. The risk of falling seriously ill or even freezing to death in such conditions is very high.
Germany’s industrial sector avoided a contraction in December last year, despite COVID-19 lockdowns at home and abroad, as strong demand from China helped export-oriented manufacturers in Europe’s largest economy weather the COVID-19 pandemic.
Industrial output was flat on the month after an upwardly revised increase of 1.5 percent in the previous month, figures released by the German Federal Statistics Office showed.
This was the first stagnation following seven consecutive months of expansions.
The main drag came from construction where output fell by 3.2 percent. Looking at core manufacturing alone, output rose by 0.9 percent on the month.
“The German manufacturing sector has performed