German Trade Surplus Contracts on Falling Exports

A drop in German exports caused the country's trade surplus to contract in January, official data showed on Monday.

Exports declined by 2.1 percent in January, driving down the trade surplus, the balance between imports and exports, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.

In seasonally adjusted terms, Germany exported goods worth a total of 96.3 billion euros ($104 billion) in January, down from 98.4 billion euros in December, Destatis said.

Imports, on the other hand, slipped by just 0.3 percent to 76.6 billion euros.

That meant the seasonally adjusted trade surplus declined to 19.7 billion euros in January from 21 billion euros in December.

In unadjusted terms, the trade surplus contracted to 15.9 billion euros in January from 17.9 billion euros in December, Destatis said.