FRANKFURT--German exports in August suffered their biggest monthly fall since January 2009, adding to a recent spate of dismal economic indicators from Europe's largest economy, data from the country's Federal Statistics Office showed Thursday.
Exports plunged by 5.8% in August on the month in adjusted terms, following a slightly upwardly revised increase of 4.8% in July, the statistics office Destatis said. The first estimate for July showed exports rising 4.7% on the month.
Imports in August fell 1.3% on the month, after a revised 1.4% decline in July. The first reading showed a decline of 1.8% for July.
The August decline was the biggest since January 2009 when exports plunged 7.1%, Destatis said.
The seasonally and calendar-adjusted trade surplus was EUR17.5 billion ($2.16 billion) in August, below analysts' forecasts for EUR18.6 billion in a Dow Jones Newswires survey.
In absolute, unadjusted terms, Germany exported goods valued at EUR84.1 billion in August, after July's EUR101.1 billion marked the highest monthly value ever recorded, the statistics office said.
The data came on the heels of a series of weak data on business and consumer confidence, industrial orders and output in recent days, adding to concerns that the recovery of Europe's largest economy in the third quarter won't be as strong as previously hoped for.
"While some special factors may be at play, we consider the trend over the quarter thus far as presenting clear downside risk to our 0.3% quarter-on-quarter growth forecast for the economy over the third quarter 2014," said Timo del Carpio, European economist at RBC. "Overall, while we expect something of a rebound in the final month of the quarter, the suite of indicators for Germany are far from suggestive of a convincing rebound in the third quarter," he said.
