Germany Jan trade balance report 10 March

  • EUR +18.7bln prev
  • exports mm SA 2.7% vs 2.0% exp vs -3.3% prev
  • imports mm SA 3.0% vs +0.5% exp vs 0.0%
  • exports yy unadj +11.8%
  • imports yy unadj +11.7%
  • current account EUR 12.8bln vs 15.5bln exp vs 24.8bln prev

Faster pace of increase in mm imports trimming the trade surplus

Q4 labour costs:

  • qq SA 1.5% vs 0.6% prev revised down from 0.8%
  • yy WDA 3.0% vs 2.3% prev revised down from 2.5%

Rising wages helping to keep pace with inflation

Feb wholesale prices:

  • mm +0.5% vs +0.8% prev
  • yy 5.0% vs 4.0% prev

Mixed WPI for Feb but annual trend firmer as we might expect.