German trade surplus grows in August

The German trade surplus grew in August, as exports grew faster than imports, official data showed on Monday. Europe's biggest economy exported goods worth a total 95.0 billion euros ($123 billion) in seasonally-adjusted terms in August, 2.4 percent more than in July, the national statistics office Destatis said. Imports were up 0.3 percent at 76.7 billion euros, so that the seasonally-adjusted trade surplus grew to 18.3 billion euros in August from 16.3 billion euros in July. Taking the eight months to August as a whole, German exports rose 5.5 percent over the year-earlier period to 734.1 billion euros in unadjusted terms, while imports were up 2.1 percent at 607.5 billion euros. That meant the January-August trade surplus increased by 25.5 percent to 126.6 billion euros.