German exports fall more than expected in December

(Reuters) – German exports fell more than expected in December due to weak global demand, data from the federal statistics office showed on Monday.

Exports fell by 4.6% in December compared with the previous month. The result compared with a forecast 2.0% decrease in a Reuters poll.

Imports fell by 6.7% from November, the federal statistics office reported, versus analysts’ expectations for a 1.5% decline.

In the year 2023, exports were down 1.4% compared with 2022, while imports to Germany experienced a much sharper decline of 9.7%.

(Reporting by Maria Martinez and Tristan Veyet, Louis van Boxel-Woolf and Halilcan Soran; Editing by Rachel More)