Foreign trade

Topics Economy

1,564
bn exports

1,362
bn imports

€ 202
bn export surplus

Current Notice

Starting from reporting month January 2025, new reporting thresholds for intra-EU trade statistics are in place. The new reporting threshold for intra-EU exports is 1 million Euro (previously 500,000 Euro). The new reporting threshold for intra-EU imports is 3 million Euro (previously 800,000 Euro). Starting from reporting month January 2025, new reporting thresholds for intra-EU trade statistics are in place. The new reporting threshold for intra-EU exports is 1 million Euro (previously 500,000 Euro). The new reporting threshold for intra-EU imports is 3 million Euro (previously 800,000 Euro).

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Press releases

20 July 2026 Imports from China up 6.2% in period from January to May 2026

The People’s Republic of China continued to be Germany's most important trading partner in terms of imports in the first five months of 2026. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that the value of German imports from China in the period from January to May 2026 stood at 72.4 billion euros. This represented a 6.2% increase in imports on the same period a year earlier. Compared with the same month in the previous year, imports in May 2026 rose by 2.1% to 14.0 billion euros (May 2025: 13.7 billion euros).

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19 June 2026 Foreign trade volume below 2019 pre-crisis level despite increase in 2025

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9 June 2026 Exports in May 2026: +0.9% on April 2026

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9 June 2026 Exports in April 2026: +0.9% on March 2026

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21 May 2026 Export surplus in trade with United States down 30.5% in 1st quarter of 2026 compared with same quarter of previous year

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8 May 2026 Exports in March 2026: +0.5% on February 2026

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Further Press Releases

Current news

Switching the volume and index calculation to the base year 2021

11 May 2026 – With the switch to the base year 2021, current results from the volume and index calculation are available starting with the reporting year 2019. The publication and revision cycle has been adjusted to reflect the nominal foreign trade results.

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Changes as of 2022

Changes to reporting obligations for ITGS from 2022 onwards

The new European Regulations on International Trade in Goods Statistics lead to major changes for providers of statistical information or reporting companies as of reporting month January 2022.

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Tables

Overall development

Annual data

Trading partners

Trading goods

Further information

Globalisation indicators

Database

GENESIS-Online

More data on foreign trade are available from the GENESIS-Online database.

The database content will continuously be extended, and links will be provided here.

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Graphics

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Development of German foreign trade

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Development of foreign trade by months

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Germanys major trading partners, 2025

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The main German trading goods 2025

Experimental statistics

In the "EXSTAT – Experimental statistics section" we regularly publish new and innovative project results of the Federal Statistical Office. These are obtained by using new data sources and methods. Both the degree of maturity and quality of the results differ from those of official statistics, especially regarding harmonisation, coverage and methodology. Nonetheless these results of the statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder offer new and interesting ways of looking at various statistical topics.

Selected articles from the EXSTAT series

Smart business cycle statistics based on satellite data

30 December 2019 - Satellites can provide images of large areas of the earth’s surface at short intervals. Technological progress has substantially influenced and improved the availability and analysis of satellite data so that they are coming into play also in official statistics.

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Experimental statistics