German shipments on strong ground in 2018

German exports rose by 3 percent to an record of nearly 1.32 trillion euros ($1.49 trillion) in 2018, preliminary results published by the German Federal Statistical Office show. The increase of German exports at 3 percent was “higher than we had expected”, commented Klaus Wohlrabe, economic expert at the Munich-based ifo Institute. However, growth in German exports slowed down at the end of 2018. In December, Germany exported goods worth 96.1 billion euros, a decline of 4.5 percent compared to the same month the year before.