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 April 2026 Exports to Iran down 24.5% year on year in 2025

In 2025, Germany exported goods to the value of 961.6 million euros to Iran. Compared with the previous year, exports to Iran therefore decreased by 24.5%. Goods to the value of 234.5 million euros were imported into Germany from Iran in 2025. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that imports rose by 1.7% year on year. Compared with 2018, exports in 2025 were down 64.3% and imports declined by 46.8%. In 2018, German exports to Iran amounted to 2.7 billion euros and imports from Iran totalled 440.8 million euros. At the end of 2018, the United States reinstated extensive sanctions on Iran, which impacted global trade with Iran.

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9 April 2026 Exports in February 2026: +3.6% on January 2026

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20 March 2026 54.7% of Germany’s export transactions with third countries were invoiced in euros in 2025

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10 March 2026 Exports in January 2026: -2.3% on December 2025

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20 February 2026 China is Germany's most important trading partner once again in 2025

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6 February 2026 Exports in December 2025: +4.0% on November 2025

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Further Press Releases

Current news

The main German export product: motor vehicles

Accounting for 16.2% of exports, motor vehicles and parts thereof were Germany's main export product in 2025. Machinery (13.8%) and computer, electronic and optical products (8.7%) ranked second and third, respectively, among the most important export items.

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China is Germany's main trading partner

According to preliminary results, goods worth 252.4 billion euros were traded between Germany and the People's Republic of China in 2025 (exports and imports).

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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