German trade surplus grows

The German trade surplus grew in June, as imports declined faster than exports, official data showed on Wednesday. Europe's biggest economy exported goods worth a total 92.3 billion euros ($114.5 billion) in seasonally-adjusted terms in June, 1.5 percent less than in May, the national statistics office Destatis said. Imports were down 2.9 percent at 76.1 billion euros, so that the seasonally-adjusted trade surplus increased to 16.2 billion euros from 15.3 billion euros in May. Taking the first six months of 2012 as a whole, German exports rose 4.8 percent over the year-earlier period to 550.4 billion euros in unadjusted terms, while imports were up 2.4 percent at 457.1 billion euros. That meant the January-June trade surplus increased by 18.4 percent to 93.3 billion euros.