BERLIN, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Germany's exports of electrical goods in September rose by a significant 11.7 percent year-on-year to 21.4 billion euros (22.3 billion U.S. dollars), the German Electro and Digital Industry Association (ZVEI) said on Wednesday.
Exports to the United States and China, the country's most important customer countries, grew by 39.3 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, and totaled 2.3 billion euros each in September, according to the ZVEI.
"In view of the challenging macroeconomic environment, industry exports thus continue to be robust so far," ZVEI chief economist Andreas Gontermann said in a statement.
Imports of electrical engineering and electronic products into Europe's largest economy grew by 25.3 percent year-on-year and reached 22.9 billion euros. "Everything points to an import surplus this year -- the first in more than 20 years," Gontermann noted.
China remained Germany's biggest supplier country, with electrical goods imports growing by around 32 percent to 7.9 billion euros in September, according to the association.
Germany's economy as a whole is also becoming more import-heavy. The country's once sizable trade surplus continued its prolonged decline and dropped to 8.1 billion euros in September. This was only half the figure recorded a year ago, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). (1 euro = 1.04 U.S. dollar) ■
