German exports up 0.9% in March but factory orders post shock fall

Germany on Tuesday reported an unexpected 0.9% rise in exports in March compared with the previous month, according to official data.

The figure beat expectations of a 0.4% increase and was also 1.2% higher year on year.

Imports rose 0.3% to €111.9bn and were down 3.0% on the same month a year earlier.

In March, Europe's largest economy saw increases in exports to EU member states and third countries, by 0.5% and 1.3% respectively.

The foreign trade balance showed a surplus of €22.3bn euros in March, compared with a forecast €22.2bn and €21.4bn the previous month.

In a separate release, the Federal Statistics Office reported an unexpected decline in industrial orders in March, which fell by 0.4% on the previous month, compared with expectations of a small rise of 0.4%.

"This brought orders to the lowest level since October last year, shrinking 4.3% over the first quarter of the year. The contraction in the headline figure was exacerbated by the volatile big-ticket orders, but only slightly as core orders' monthly pick-up was marginal. Worryingly, they are yet to break from a sustained downward trend that they remain in since early-2022," said Oxford Economics.

"This bodes ill for German industrial production, to be published tomorrow, which likely contracted in the final month of Q1, resulting in a broad stabilisation over the quarter. But, in line with tentative signs of improvement in a number of sectors such as automotive, we remain hopeful of a recovery taking firmer hold over H2."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com