German exports, imports top monthly record in July

Germany's exports and imports rose to new monthly records in July, official data showed Tuesday, underlining the robustness of Europe's top economy in the current stormy global economic seas.

In regular monthly data, the federal statistics office Destatis calculated that Germany exported 103.4 billion euros ($116 billion) worth of goods in seasonally adjusted terms in July, 2.4 percent more than in the previous month.

At the same time, imports grew by 2.2 percent to 80.6 billion euros. The level of both exports and imports was the highest ever attained in a single month, Destatis said in a statement.

That left a trade surplus -- which is the balance between exports and imports -- of 22.8 billion euros, up from 22.1 billion euros the previous month, the statisticians calculated.

In unadjusted terms, the trade surplus rose to a record 25.0 billion euros in July from 24.1 billion euros in June, with foreign demand for German-made goods rising strongly to all regions, Destatis said.

Exports to the EU increased by 6.0 percent year-on-year in July, exports to the eurozone were up 5.5 percent, and exports to countries outside the EU grew by 6.4 percent, Destatis calculated.