China’s economy is not gaining momentum. German exports to China are also suffering as a result. Martin Puddy, Getty Images
In the current economic downturn, many hopes are pinned on China in Germany. But the second largest economy in the world is itself in a crisis.
China’s foreign trade collapsed even more in July than had been feared anyway. This also applies to German exports to China. They shrank by 8.4 percent in the first half of the year.
The weak China business is one of the many problems of the German economy. A side effect is that Germany’s dependence on China is decreasing. The USA will become more important.
The German economy is under pressure from many sides. In the short term, Germany is in an economic crisis and will not come out of the recession. In the medium term, there is no growth potential. In search of improvement, some hopes rest on the sales market China – despite the growing rivalry. But the second largest economy in the world is in crisis itself. This is also shown by the latest figures for China’s foreign trade. Germany’s exports to China collapse.
After already sharp declines in the previous months, China’s exports in July were 14.5 percent below the previous year. More importantly for Germany: China’s imports fell by 12.4 percent in July. The responsible customs authority in Beijing called these numbers on Tuesday. Both China’s exports and imports developed even worse than expected by analysts.
Overall, the prospects for the Chinese economy are becoming increasingly gloomy. After a strong start to the year, China is noticeably losing momentum. The communist-ruled country is suffering from weak global demand, but above all from a troubled domestic real estate market and persistently weak domestic consumption. The population is shrinking. Youth unemployment is high. Increasing interventions by the Chinese Communist Party in the economy and society are slowing down the country.
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German exports to China are declining sharply
For Germany, China is not a lifeline in the current economic crisis for the time being. They show that too Data on German foreign trade with China up to and including Junelay. In the first half of the year, exports from German companies to China were around 4.5 billion euros below the previous year at 49.4 billion euros. This corresponded to a decline of a strong 8.4 percent.
Weak China trade also has a positive downside. Overall, Germany’s economic dependence on China is decreasing somewhat. In the first half of 2023, 11.3 percent of all German exports went to China. A year ago it was 12.8 percent. All in all, around 8.6 percent of German foreign trade is still with China. The percentage was the lowest it has been since 2016. However, the dependency is very high, especially when importing individual product groups from China. This applies, for example, to important raw materials such as rare earths or pharmaceuticals.
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