German trade surplus shrinks as exports decline

The German trade surplus contracted in October as both exports and imports declined, official data showed on Friday. Europe's biggest economy exported goods worth a total 88.1 billion euros ($117 billion) in seasonally-adjusted terms in October, 3.6 percent less than in September, the national statistics office Destatis said. Imports declined by 1.0 percent to 75.5 billion euros, so that the seasonally-adjusted trade surplus declined to 12.6 billion euros from 15.1 billion euros in September. Taking the 10 months to October as a whole, German exports rose 12.5 percent over the year-earlier period to 881.1 billion euros in unadjusted terms, while imports were up 14.6 percent at 750.7 billion euros. That meant the 10-month trade surplus increased by 1.5 percent to 130.3 billion euros.