Import and export of Germany

Everyone knows that the basis of the strength and power of absolutely any modern state is its developed economy in all respects. Each country has different indicators of domestic and foreign trade, but it is easy to guess that the more a country sells its products abroad, the richer it becomes. This article will examine the export and import of Germany - one of the pillars of the current European Union, which is also among the strongest countries around the world.

Unconditional leader

The German economy is rightfully considered the largest on the European continent. Despite the fact that industry in Germany is very developed, still this state is post-industrial, since up to 78% of its economy is various services, and the remainder is agribusiness and the production of all existing types of goods.

It is important to note the fact that Germany adheres to a policy of hospitality in relation to foreign direct investment. The German market is completely open to investors in almost all segments of industry. Commercial activities are characterized by a high degree of freedom, transparency and democratization. In Germany, a universal concept has been approved at the legislative level, thanks to which there is no significant difference between foreign and local entrepreneurs in the matter of capital investments and the creation of new firms or companies.

Features

German exports are based on the supply to other countries of a variety of specialized equipment, machinery, vehicles, chemical products, medicines, aircraft and helicopters. As for metallurgy, the leading German concerns have long moved away from the concept of steel production and focused on the production of pipes, equipment and other products. Today, ferrous metallurgy is not considered the country's leading industrial sector and is based on raw materials imported from abroad. The same can be said of non-ferrous metallurgy.

Car giants

In many respects, German exports are the numerous deliveries to their partners of cars of such giants as Volkswagen, BMW, Audi, Porsche and others. Each year, each of these manufacturers sells about 6 million cars and about 4 million more are produced in foreign branches. Volkswagen Group deserves special attention, since it owns almost 12% of the production of all cars on the planet.

Record period

In July 2015, German exports showed their highest value in numerical terms for the entire observation period, which started back in 1991. These data were announced by the Federal Statistical Office of the country. So, in particular, at that time, exports amounted to 103.4 billion euros, and imports - 80.6 billion. Both indicators then exceeded even the most daring expectations of economists. And this despite the fact that the supply of German goods to China decreased against the backdrop of a slowdown in the economic development of a large Asian power, which, in turn, ranks fourth in the ranking of Germany’s foreign trade partners.

Another point deserves special attention: in 2015, Germany exported all kinds of weapons almost one and a half times. In monetary terms, this figure amounted to almost 7.86 billion euros, and it became a record for the German military-industrial segment of the economy in this century.

As for the results of 2015, Germany, whose export of goods increased by 6.4% compared to 2014, earned 1 trillion 195.8 billion euros. At the same time, the country's import record reached 948 billion euros. That is, 2015 for the German state was very successful in economic terms, because the country's surplus amounted to 247.8 billion euros (an increase of 16%).

The first half of 2016

At the end of June 2016, German exports were slightly inferior to imports. According to statistics, the supply of goods to the country exceeded the sale of products abroad by 0.7%. The trade balance was at the level of 21.7 billion euros. At the same time, May production volumes in Germany unexpectedly decreased for many specialists, which is associated with strong economic growth at the beginning of the year.

Partners

The main long-term and mutually beneficial trade relations with Germany have developed with France, the United States of America, Japan, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and China. Almost 25% of all German industrial products are produced at powerful enterprises, in which foreign capital is involved. In addition, the state is heavily dependent on imports of raw materials and semi-finished products.

It is noteworthy: the results of 2015 showed that the Germans exported the largest number of goods to the United States. The amount of exports overseas amounted to 113.9 billion euros.

Relations with the Russian Federation

Export to Germany from Russia last year amounted to only 29.7 billion euros. In the opposite direction, slightly less was delivered, worth 21.7 billion.

If you look a little deeper into Russian-German trade relations, you can see that for the whole of 2014, products worth 36.8 billion US dollars were shipped from Russia to Germany. Russian exports to the German state are represented by the following categories: