German trade continues to struggle amid the global growth slowdown
- Germany June trade balance €16.8 billion vs €19.5 billion expected
- Exports -8.0% y/y (weakest annual performance since July 2016)
- Imports -4.4% y/y (weakest annual performance since July 2016)
Despite some improvement in domestic demand for the month of June, the year-on-year estimates paint the real picture here. If anything else, this goes to show much the German economy is tied to global growth and the Chinese economy.
With trade tensions still not going away any time soon, it looks like things will continue to get worse for Germany's manufacturing sector (the backbone of the economy) before they get any better. Pictures/Graphs do well to tell the story here:
