Latest : Exports from EU’s largest economy are down by 7.5% in one year

If the UK were doing as badly as Germany the BBC would be as happy as foxes in a hen coop

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

Brexit Facts4EU.Org reveals more woes from the EU’s biggest economic hitter

Readers may have blinked and missed this on the BBC, so we thought that the latest news out of the German Federal Government’s statistics agency may be of interest. German exports are down by 7.5% year-on-year.

Last week Destatis reported German export numbers and they are getting worse. Germany accounts for around 30% of the EU’s total GDP from the 27 member countries, so this is bad news for Brussels.

For the EU it’s going from bad to worse

This comes on top of the news that the German economy shrunk in the last quarter (Jul-Sept) and looks headed for a fully-fledged recession. It is now widely forecast to be the worst performer in the G7 this year.

An indication of the effect of Germany’s woes can be seen in the fact that the entire Eurozone’s economy actually fell last quarter, as we reported last week.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Exports (calendar and seasonally adjusted German exports of goods), September 2023

€126.5 billion euros
-2.4% on the previous month
-7.5% on the same month a year earlier

[Source : Destatis, German federal statistics office.]

In September 2023, German exports were down 2.4% on a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis compared with the previous month. Based on provisional data, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that exports had decreased by 7.5% from September 2022.

‘Treasure Island’ to the rescue

Most German exports in September 2023 went to the United States. However, after seasonal and calendar adjustment, exports of goods to the US were down 4.0% compared with August 2023, with the value of exports to the US dropping to €12.8 billion euros. Exports to the People's Republic of China decreased by 7.3% to €7.7 billion euros.

It was the UK, known as ‘Treasure Island’, that partially sailed to the rescue, with German exports to the United Kingdom rising by 2.3% to €6.3 billion euros. However, imports from the United Kingdom also increased by 5.2% to €3.2 billion euros during the same period, so the balance of payments effect for the Germans was mitigated.

On a purely nominal basis (not adjusted for calendar or seasonal effects), Germany exported goods to the value of €129.2 billion in September 2023. Compared with September 2022, on this basis exports in September 2023 therefore decreased by 10.5%.

Observations

It is not in the UK’s interests to see the EU’s largest economy in trouble like this. And no-one is suggesting that it will be plain sailing for the UK’s economy next year. This will certainly not be helped by the Chancellor’s massive 31% hike in corporation tax this year, nor by the Bank of England maintaining excessively high interest rates.

That said, the reason we produce reports such as this is because we’re sure readers can imagine how it would be all over the BBC news if the UK’s exports had fallen like those of Germany.

“Despite Brexit” (as they say), the UK’s exports have actually risen, as we reported last month. The UK’s sales to the EU have risen by 51.5% to the EU since the Referendum and by 58% to the rest of the world.

We must get reports like this out there

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

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[ Sources: Destatis, Federal German Statistics Office ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 07 Nov 2023

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Reader Comments 4

1. Captain Thunderbolt , Tuesday, November 07, 2023, 08:52:

Well look on the bright side of this news.
If German Economy is shrinking then they should pay less membership fees.
.
.
Always look on the bright side of life

2. terence patrick hewett , Tuesday, November 07, 2023, 12:55:

Germany has its empire at last: it will be interesting to watch its progress, and lay bets on how long it will last, given the rise of Asia as a competitor. I would hazard a guess, it will last as long as Visegrad stays. If Visegrad leaves, it will be Goodbye Dolly Gray.

3. jon iivesey , Tuesday, November 07, 2023, 18:28:

There is a basic fact about Germany that the EU fans constantly ignore in their worship of German engineering, German discipline and German this and that. Germany is a major economy inside a resource-poor country. Germany has very little of the natural resources we take for granted. This is why Germany waged aggressive war on its neighbours in the 19th century and stole French coal and iron ore areas. It is also why Germany lost two World Wars and why Germany invaded the USSR with an army that had more horses than vehicles and why Germany was literally out of fuel and energy at each defeat, while the UK was able to supply fuel to its armies that it imported by controlling the sea.
The only peacetime economic model that works for Germany is to import raw materials and export manufactured goods to pay for it. Germany does not have some genius exporting DNA; it is simply that exporting manufactured goods is the only model that works for them.
The result of this is that Germany is always far too dependent on exporting and trade to keep its economy running, why Germans get a standard of living well below what they generate, why Germany accumulates more and more paper assets by exporting to the rest of the EU, and why Germany is periodically disproportionally hit by World trade slow-downs.
Each German export crisis has a cause, and this time it is energy prices making Germany less competitive, and the next time it will be something else, but there is always a crisis coming, which is why Germany has to control the rest of Europe, and why Germany and Russia make natural partners, NATO or no NATO.

4. Gazzablack , Tuesday, November 07, 2023, 21:00:

German exporters are fuming over the failed EU - Australia trade deal.
.
German news outlet DW asks of the failure.
- Why were they surprised?
- What it says about the EU to the wider world
- What the stumbling blocks were
.
The Eurozone is falling into recession, and is at best stagnating.
It has been going backwards in comparison to the rest of the world for a long time.
.
Headline numbers are stark
EU economy, in dollar terms, is 65% the size of the US, down from 91% in 2013.
Per capita, US GDP is more than twice the size of the EU's.
.
The gap to the US is widening, the single market is stretched to the point of breaking, and national economic indicators are flashing red.

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