In seasonally adjusted term, German trade balance widened to EUR 18.3B in August. Export dropped -0.1% yoy while import dropped even more by -2.7% yoy. The data added further evidence that the German economy is losing momentum again. It also echoed industrial production data released yesterday, which unexpectedly contracted -0.3% yoy in August.
In the updated forecasts by IMF, German GDP is expected to grow 1.9% in 2018, a large downward revision from April forecast of 2.5%> For 2019, growth projection was also revised to 1.9%, down from 2.0%.
The German government is due to release its updated economy forecasts this Thursday. And it’s expected that there would be downward revision to growth for this year and next too.
