Foreign trade

Topics Economy

1,563
bn exports

1,363
bn imports

€ 201
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 February 2026 China is Germany's most important trading partner once again in 2025

With a foreign trade turnover (total of goods exports and imports) of 251.8 billion euros, the People's Republic of China was Germany’s most important trading partner again in 2025, a title it also held in the period from 2016 to 2023. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that China therefore took over the top position from the United States, which was Germany's most important trading partner in 2024. In 2025, the US was once again Germany's second most important trading partner, with a foreign trade turnover of 240.5 billion euros. While trade in goods with China grew by 2.1% on the previous year, trade with the United States declined by 5.0%. This was primarily due to the continuing increase in imports from China, coupled with falling exports to the United States. The Netherlands was Germany's third most important trading partner after China and the United States, with exports and imports having a total value of 209.1 billion euros (+3.3%).

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

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9 January 2026 Exports in November 2025: -2.5% on October 2025

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19 December 2025 Exports to Bulgaria from January to October 2025 up 7.2% on the same period a year earlier

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9 December 2025 Exports in October 2025: +0.1% on September 2025

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19 November 2025 CORRECTION: January to September 2025: Germany's most important trading partner is China

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Further Press Releases

Current news

The main German export product: motor vehicles

Accounting for 16.3% of exports, motor vehicles and parts thereof were Germany's main export product in 2025. Machinery (13.7%) 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 251.8 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

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