German Trade Surplus Rises

Germany's trade surplus increased in February as exports fared better than imports, official data showed on Friday. The German trade surplus -- the balance between exports and imports -- amounted to 13.5 billion euros ($17.3 billion) in February, up from 13.3 billion euros in January and also higher than the 12.2 billion euros recorded in February 2004, the federal statistics office, Destatis, calculated in preliminary figures. The biggest eurozone economy exported goods worth 61.5 billion euros in February. That represented a decline of 2.8 percent in calendar and seasonally adjusted terms from the figure for January. But imports declined even more sharply, falling by 3.7 percent to 48.4 billion euros, the statisticians said. Taking into account trade in services and income, Germany's current account showed a surplus of 8.4 billion euros in February, up from 6.8 billion euros in both January and in February 2004. (AFP)