Some economists were already beginning to argue that too much austerity could damage Germany's growth prospects during the summer of 2011. If the nefarious forecasts of a "Cassandra" like Nouriel Roubini were not taken very seriously by Berlin, today's data will do the trick. to arouse a rethink in the Reichstag.
The injections of austerity that the countries of the European region have been forced to have reduced the export capacity of Germany, which continues to grow but at a slower pace. The largest economy in the European Union saw exports grow by 8,6% on an annual basis, reaching 91,3 billion euros in value. But excluding the flows to Asia and Poland, the German performance in the intra-European market at 27 is rather weak: +3,3% (35,4 billion euro).
On the other hand, the flow of exports to world markets is much more dynamic: +13,4%, demonstrating the fact that Germany relies much more than yesterday on trade flows outside the Union.
The strength of exports to third-party markets offset the growth in imports (+6,1%, 76,5 billion euros), increasing the trade surplus to 14,7 billion from 11,9 in the previous year. Even the current accounts, which in addition to goods also include services and financial assets, are positive for 11,1 billion compared to 10,6 a year earlier.
