German exports dip 1.5 percent on the month in July; up 18.7 percent year-on-year

German exports slightly lower on month in July

BERLIN — German exports dipped by 1.5 percent in July compared with the previous month but were still up a strong 18.7 percent over the same month last year, official data showed Wednesday.

The monthly drop reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Wednesday followed two months of big gains.

Strong exports helped push the German economy — Europe’s biggest — to growth of 2.2 percent in the second quarter and the country’s central bank, the Bundesbank, recently forecast that it will grow by about 3 percent in 2010 — up sharply from a previous prediction of 1.9 percent.

Germany exported goods and services worth euro83 billion ($106 billion) in July. Imports totaled euro69.5 billion — down 2.2 percent on the month but 24.9 percent higher than a year earlier.

“Following an exorbitant first half of the year, Germany’s external trade shows no sign of taking a summer break,” Anton Boerner, the head of the country’s BGA exporters association, said in a statement.

Even though the last months’ record highs were not reached, the continuing rise shows the current upsurge’s sustainability and companies are confident about the coming months, he added.

The broader economic upsurge is mostly fueled by strong demand for German goods from abroad, especially from emerging economies, Boerner said.

“Germany’s export model has proven itself and we even have to strengthen it further,” he added.

Germany’s foreign trade surplus narrowed to euro13.5 billion from euro14.2 billion in June.

The world’s No. 2 exporter after China, Germany has drawn criticism from some U.S. and European policymakers who say it should rely less on foreign demand and do more to boost domestic consumption.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, however, has stressed that Germany is also one of the world’s biggest importers and that its recent growth helps to strengthen the European economy as a whole.

“We are the locomotive of growth in Europe,” Schaeuble said last week.

Recent surveys have shown German business and consumer confidence continuing to rise, and unemployment was down to 7.6 percent in August, leaving some 3.2 million registered as jobless, as the improving economy bolstered the labor market.