German Trade Gap With China Narrows for First Time in Five Years

(Bloomberg) — Germany’s trade deficit with China shrank for the first time since 2018 — helping to more than double the country’s overall surplus.

The gap with the Asian nation narrowed to €58.4 billion ($63 billion) last year, down from a high of €86 billion in 2022, data published Monday by Germany’s statistics office showed.

That is the second-strongest reading on record and was primarily due to a drop of more than 19% in Chinese imports while exports declined at about half that pace.