German foreign trade is of central importance for economic growth and for the labour market in Germany. ?While ten years ago only one out of six employees in Germany was export-dependent, today it is one out of five? said the President of the Federal Statistical Office, Johann Hahlen, at a press briefing in Frankfurt/Main on the situation of German foreign trade and its interlinkage with the overall economy.
According to latest results from input-output computations of the Federal Statistical Office, a calculated 8.3 million jobs in Germany depended on exports in 2005, 2.4 million more than in 1995 and nearly one million more than in 2000.
In the year 2005, about 30.5 million persons worked for the domestic market, that is 1.3 million less than in 2000. So the job losses of the last five years could not be compensated by additional jobs created in the export business after all.
With the exception of 2003, successful foreign trade had a marked influence on the growth of the gross domestic product since the year 2000.
Germany owes about two thirds of the last two years?economic growth in real terms, that is 1.1 percentage points out of 1.6 percent in 2004 and 0.6 percentage points out of 1.0 percent in 2005 to real net exports, that is the balance of exports and imports of goods and services.
The economic performance contained in exports rose by a nominal 81.3 percent from 1995 to 2005, the entire gross domestic product increasing by ?nly?21.6 percent over that period.
The economic performance linked with domestic production to satisfy foreign demand rose accordingly from a share of 15.6 percent of the gross domestic product in 1995 to 23.2 percent in 2005.
In relation to the value of exports, the foreign share in the value chain of German exports increased continuously. In 2005, imported intermediate consumption used to produce goods and services for the foreign market accounted for a share of 22.6 percent of exports.
Commodities temporarily imported to Germany only for trading purposes or for processing under contract contributed 17.0 percent to exports. Thus the import share of exports totals 39.6 percent.
If one looks only at the export of goods excluding services, the share of imports in total goods exports is 41.7 percent. The differences existing between the three major trading goods are considerable. In 2005, the import share was especially large for chemical products (51.7 percent).
For motor vehicles, it was slightly below the average of all goods exports with 37.0 percent, and it was relatively small for machinery (30.9 percent).
In the case of chemical products, goods for resale and imports for processing under contract prevailed, in the case of motor vehicles and parts thereof, imported intermediate consumption predominated.
The pronounced growth of German foreign trade over the last few years ?from 1995 to 2005 foreign trade turnover rose 95 percent?was accompanied by only few structural changes for instance regarding the main trading partners of the Federal Republic of Germany: traditionally, the most important German sales markets are located within the European Union.
Nearly two thirds of all commodities were exported to other EU countries in 2005. At country level, there were hardly any changes at all in the last few years. As regards exports, France was in the lead before the US and Great Britain, regarding imports, France was also first, followed by the Netherlands and the US.
