Germany trade surplus improves in September, misses market estimates

Trade surplus in Germany improved during the month of September, largely missing what markets had initially anticipated.

German trade data showed exports and imports contracted by 0.7 and 0.5 percent respectively, in September from August, with the export decline slightly worse and the import decrease better than expectations, data released by the Federal Statistical Office showed Tuesday.

A Reuters poll had pointed to exports falling by 0.85 percent and imports shrinking by 0.2 percent.

Compared with September 2015 exports were up 0.9 percent but imports were down 1.4 percent, with the notable drags on the figures including imports from other eurozone counties and exports to and imports from countries outside the 28-nation EU.

The fall in exports narrowed the seasonally adjusted trade surplus to EUR21.3 billion from a revised EUR21.6 billion in August. The September reading was below the Reuters consensus forecast of EUR23.0 billion.