German trade surplus grows in April

The German trade surplus grew in April, as imports declined faster than exports, official data showed on Friday. Europe's biggest economy exported goods worth a total 90.0 billion euros ($112.7 billion) in seasonally-adjusted terms in April, 1.7 percent less than in March, the national statistics office Destatis said. Imports were down 4.8 percent at 73.9 billion euros, so that the seasonally-adjusted trade surplus increased to 16.1 billion euros from 14.0 billion euros in March. Taking the first four months of 2012 as a whole, German exports rose 5.2 percent over the year-earlier period to 363.1 billion euros in unadjusted terms, while imports were up 3.3 percent at 303.2 billion euros. That meant the January-April trade surplus increased by 15.9 percent to 59.8 billion euros.