Exports in Germany exceeded expectations

The German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced the country's provisional foreign trade data for the period September 2026.

Accordingly, exports adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects in the country reached 141.1 billion euros, with a 2 percent increase on a monthly basis in September.

Thus, the strongest monthly export increase since February was recorded.

The expectation in the markets was that there would be a limited increase of 0.5 percent in September, following the 0.4 percent decline in August. Exports increased by 7.7 percent compared to September 2025.

Germany's imports increased by 4.2 percent on a monthly basis in the same period, reaching 125.5 billion euros. The annual increase in imports was recorded as 8.7 percent.

Thus, Germany's foreign trade surplus decreased from 17.9 billion euros in August to 15.6 billion euros in September. In the same month last year, this figure was 15.5 billion euros.

EU countries were the engine of growth in exports

Sales to European Union (EU) member countries were effective in Germany's export increase in September. Exports to EU countries increased by 3.5 percent and reached 80.8 billion euros. 55.8 billion euros of this amount was made up of Eurozone countries, and 25 billion euros was made up of EU countries outside the Eurozone. Imports from the EU increased by 4.9 percent to 62.9 billion euros.

Exports to countries outside the EU reached 60.3 billion euros with a limited increase of 0.1 percent on a monthly basis in September, while imports from these countries increased by 3.6 percent and reached 62.7 billion euros.

USA retained its position as the largest market, trade with China weakened

Germany's largest foreign market was the USA in September. Although exports to the USA decreased by 0.5 percent on a monthly basis to 13.4 billion euros, they increased by 10.3 percent compared to September last year.

In the same period, exports to the UK decreased by 4.7 percent to 7.3 billion euros, and exports to China decreased by 5.2 percent to 5.5 billion euros.

On the import side, Germany's largest supplier continued to be China. Imports from China increased by 1.6 percent in September, reaching 17.3 billion euros.

Imports from the USA increased by 6.2 percent to 8.8 billion euros, and imports from the UK increased by 1 percent to 3.3 billion euros.